STRANGE GAS MIXTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 151, 29 June 1931, Page 9

STRANGE GAS MIXTURE

CHINESE CRACKER EXPLODES i chemical discovery of great in terest has been made by Dr. H. W. Thompson, of Oxford. When oxygen and that notorious gas called hydrogen sulphide, and known popularly as “rotten eggs,’’ are mixed in certain pro portions and under certain conditions, they explode, says a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Dr Thompson finds that they explode not once only but continue to explode at inter vals of a minute or so, like a Chinese cracker. One can see immediately that some thing very strange must be occurring, because one would naturally expect the gases to be entirely combined with each other after the first explosion. How tho two gases succeed is continuing to explode is not yet understood.

The phenomenon seems to be of a most original type and may contain th-' germs of extraordinary practical applications. Ono can imagine an entirely new type of internal combustion or motor-engine which is driven by “Chin ese-cracker” -explosions and in which all valve gears and cycles used to space out ths time between the explosions in the engine cylinders could be abolished. The speed of the engine would be regu lated entirely by varying the mixture. Secondly, the continuously exploding mixture may solve the problem of the gas-turbine. At present the temperatures and pressures produced by the burning of gases are too great to be handled practically in a turbine. If the complete combustion of the gases used to drive such a turbine could be replaced by a series of partial combustions or a succession of small explosions, blowing a scries of small pulls through the turbine nozzle, the realisation of the gas-turbine might bo in •sight. Then the petrol or oil-driven motor-car could have a smooth turbine to drive it, instead of a whirring and vibrating engine. Dr. Thompson’s discovery raises all kinds of surmise, and one 'hopes that the effect may be obtained from all explosive mixtures of gases when the cor rect conditions are provided.