CAUSE OF FRENCH DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

CAUSE OF FRENCH DISASTER.

DANGER OF SMOKELESS POWDER,

SIR H. MAXIM'S VIEWS.

The disaster to the Liberte," says Sir Hiram* Maxim, " recalls in seme particulars the blowing up of tho United States battleship Maine.

4 From what we know about the disaster to the Liberte, I would say that probably some of the delicate, sensitive powders that are used nowadays took firo, and commenced to burn. That has very often happened. These new powders are not so stable in a warm place as the old black powder.

" The powders at present used in France and in other nations on the Continent are not always stable if kept in the magazine of a battleship for a long time. They become so sensitive that they often explode themselves. A species of slow combustion sets in. they give off nitro-oxide gases, which get ignited, and then an explosion takes place. "In the early days it was very hard to make nitro-glycerine that would not go off. The basis of all the . smokeless powders nowadays is guncotton, but it was a long time before guncotton could bo made which would last more than a few years in a warm atmosphere, and it was not until Von Linck in Austria and Sir Frederick Abel in England took the matter in hand that guncotton was made which would last any time in warm climates. Danger of Smokeless Powder. "If you take a piece of smokeless powder and set it on fire it burns slowly away. On one occasion, Sir Frederick Abel maintained that compressed guncotton, even if set on fire in largo quantities, would never explode, but simply burn away. The experiments wore first tried on a small scale, but afterwards a ton of it was built up. Sir Frederick set it on fire, and walked slowly away. When he had covered only 50ft the remainder of it exploded, and he went through the air like a sparrow, and was nearly killed. "After that guncotton was mixed together, and I maintained that under certain conditions it would detonate- Sir Frederick Abel and many others maintained that it would not explode. It was a fact that if a small quantity was set alight, it would simply burn away. One day, however, several tons of it was piled up on Plumstead marshes and set on fire. After it had burned some time, there was a terrible detonation, which made a big hole in the ground, and did an immense amount of damage to property. Afterwards I made experiments, and demonstrated that under certain conditions smokeless powder would detonate just like fulminate of mercury. "If unstable compounds are used, powder is almost sure to decompose," added Sir Hiram.