Air Gap Sensitiveness to Detonation and Explosion

Air Gap Sensitiveness to Detonation (and Explosion). It is a term which has been applied to the maximum distance of the consistent propagation of detonation by influence from a primer charge across an air gap to a receptor charge. The air-gap test for sensitiveness has been used for many years as a control test for dynamites and other commercial expls. 

In the case of mining expls, it provides a measure of probable borehole performance, ie, whether or not the expl may be depended upon to propagate in a long column under the confinement of the borehole (See also Detonation by Influence) 

Ref Cook (1958), 194-95 Note There are several varieties of Air-Gap Tests, some of which were described in Vol 1 of Encycl, pp XIV-XV. Addnl refs are given under Detonation by Influence 

Amplitude of Shock Waves. See under Detonation Waves and Shock Waves 

Anomalous and Transient Wave Propagation is discussed in Cook (1958), 140-41 

---