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Show 8EEK ENGINE OF DESTRUCTION. War Chemists All Dream of Achieving a Perfect Power. To achieve a perfect power Is tho, dream of every war chemist of to-day, writes William George In the Technical Tech-nical World Magazine, upon this uncertain stuff does the destiny of nations na-tions depend, In spite of The lingua conferences and the amiable platitudes plati-tudes of peace envoys. Great Britain has her cordite and lyddite; Franco puts her trust In poison-reeking melinite; mel-inite; Japan has her Shlmonose powder. pow-der. In Bhort, every war offlce has its own formula, but all aro based on "nltro compound" like gun-cotton. This, Is a high explosive, almost entirely en-tirely smokeless, and enormously .more powerful than ordinary gunpowder, gun-powder, long since relegated to the limbo of other days, Just as gas has been superseded by electric light In the more peaceful walks of life. Unfortunately the compound can not be relied upon. The absoluto requisite Is stability the Insuring thnt tho powder will enduro without change any heat or climatic variation. An unstable explosive the terror of every warship afloat, which stocks tons of it looks like any other In tho laboratory, and will shoot as well as the best, provided It be used before It has time to burn Itself up. The trouble Is -that no chemist a earth knows when spontaneous combustion will take place through decomposition with the powder Itself. Hence many terrible disasters of recent years In all navies. |