A NEW EXPLOSIVE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 242, 18 July 1872, Page 3

A NEW EXPLOSIVE.

A new explosive compound, of which wc have already heard something, is thus noticed by the Spectator :—“ A form of nitro-glycerine has been discovered —it is called lithofracteur—which is perfectly safe for all purposes of carrying or even firing, yielding no explosion whether it is subjected to a violent shock like a heavy fall or the fall of a heavy body upon it, or whether it it actually set on fire, but as explosive as ever when it is ignited 1 by a percussion-capped fuse, the fuse being inserted in the lithofracteur.’ The manufacturers are the Brothers Krebs and Co., of Cologne. The experiments conducted recently by a Committee of our own War Office at Mr Frant’s limestone quarries, Nant-Mawr, near Shrewsbury, seemed to answer perfectly. Tho lithofractcur was heated to 370' Fahrenheit (further above boiling point than boiling point is above freezing), and no explosion or even ignition took place. Tho heaviest shocks were given to the lithofracteur in in every form, and no explosion took place. Even when ignited in the ordinary way, it only burned slowly, without explosion. But when ignited with a percussion capped fuse imbedded in the lithofracteur the explosions were as forciblcHand violent as those of ordinary nitroglycerine. Thus it seems that nitroglycerine may he carried about (in this form) without any danger of accident, and yet without any loss of its enormous explosive power.