T.N.T.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 219, 4 June 1918, Page 5

T.N.T.

: — 9 ■ ! AT CLOSE QUARTERS WITH A HIGH EXPLOSIVE THE PLACE OF FORBIDDEN THINGS (From the London Correspondent of tho Melbourne "Ago.") London, Maroh 25. "Very safe stuff; that is tho beauty of it," said the distinguished chomist who is head of tho staff of sixty chemists constituting the research department of a large T.N.T. factory in the M-'dlands. He was conducting over tho factory a party of London, American, and overseas journalists, who at the invitation of the Min. istry of. Munitions were visiting various munition works in the Midlands which are under the supervision of the Birmingham Board of Management. The distinguished chemist was explaining how ' T.N.T. is manufactured. He spoke with professional enthusiasm of T.N.T. as tho most insensitive explosivo known to chein- ! istry. When the war began there was no ! T.N.T. manufactured in Great Britain. i though the British naval and military au. : thorities knew that the Germans were manufacturing it. But now T.N.T. has entirely displaced nitro-glyeerino in the high explosivo shells iired by British . guns, both in tho Army and the Navy. It is used in torpedoes and bombs as well as in shells. A "Safe" "Product But in spite of the fact that a T.N.T. factory is so obviously a place of great danger jt is possible to share the enthusiasm of the chemists for the insenuitiveness of the, finished product, after one has seen the way in which it is handled. The process of manufacture is dangerous, the chief danger being from fire but the finished product is "very safe stuff" to handle, considering its great explosivo power. It is difficult to explode T.N.T., and difficult to set fire to it. Place a lighted match on it, and the match will burn itself out. With patience it is possible to set T.N.T. alight, but when it is alight it will merely burn harmlessly. Hit it with a hammer and it will not explode. In the factory tho workmen hajidle.it as indifferently as if it were., ithe'crystal3 of a harmless chemical salt. If any of the hot T.N.T. in its liquid form escapes from the nipes leading to the cooling tanks, it solidifies in much the same way as candle grease does; and a workman chips it off the pipes as indifferently as if it wore candle grease. In the building where the final produce is packed into linen bags, then into tin boxes, which are enclosed in wooden boxes, all the work is done by girls. They handle many tons of this high explosivo every day, but they sing'at their work,, as they bump the boxes of T.N.T. about, and wheel them along to the railway i rucks on tho siding. If they dropped a box of it on the floor there would be no explosion. It has been scientifically calculated that the explosive point of T.N.T. would just be reached if a thin layer of tho substance were placed on an anvil and a small hammer with a head the size of a finger tip were placed on the anvil and struck with a 121b. weight, dropped from a height of 20 feet. For military and naval purposes T.N.T. is exploded by p. detonator.

Until February, 1915, ,the site of this T.N.T. factory was pasture land. Within four months of the first Rod beine cut it was manufacturing small quantities of T.N.T. But in those days British chemists know very littlu about T.N.T. and its properties. And the factory was in such a comparatively primitive stale that in tho finishing stapro tho molten T.N.T. was noured from water-ing-cans into toffco tins, and after it was cooled in the toffee tins, it was taken out and broken with wooden hammers. "Thoso were times of groat difficulty and great strain," said one of the directors of the factory in welcoming our party. "We had not learned then how to handlo T.N.T. without perpetual casualties from that most irritating malady, T.N.T, rash, without seriously upsetting the digestions and hearts, and sometimes the lungs, of those who steadily struggled against very adverse conditions. Those conditions are fortunately long passed, and tho earnest, intelligent, and enthusiastic co-operation of a staff, largely exceeding a hundred fully qualified choniists and engineers, lias converted what was then tho crudest assembly of devices for the production of an article—the manufacture of which was ill understood in England—into what I believe, when tho history of this enterprise comes to be written, will prove to bo the most economical, efficient, and up-to-date T.N.T. factory erected dating the war by any of the Allied nations." .