General consideration on safety of explosives

Dubnov [38] postulated the causes of the explosibility of methane by the detonation of an explosive. On being ejected from the shothole the products of detonation of an explosive charge are mixed with the air and the methane present in the atmosphere. The probability that the mixture will explode depends on the following factors  

Since after time t has been surpassed, the composition of the gaseous mixture tends towards a decreasing concentration of combustible ingredients while the temperature of the mixture falls, the safety condition is fulfilled when r t. 

Polar Ajax, a gelatinous explosive was fired as usual in the mortar of a testing 

However, J. Taylor found that the converse may also hold good on the detonation of an explosive freely suspended in a chamber filled with a mixture of 9% methane in air (i.e. not fired in a mortar), the relationship between the charge limit and the rate of detonation (Fig. 134) is clearly marked in explosives of similar composition. Murata [42] came to the same conclusion. Likewise, if detonation is initia- 

The procedure for testing with the explosive charges suspended in the methane-air mixture, as carried out at Ardeer, Great Britain, and described by J. Taylor and Gay [4] is shown in the photograph (Fig. 135). The diagram (Fig. 136) shows the test lay-out. 

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