H.M. Inspectors of Explosives

Annual Report of H. M. Inspectors of Explosives for 1967, Her Majesty s Stationery Office, London, 1968. 

H. M, Inspector of Explosives. Annual Report 1932. H.M. Stationery Office. London... 

I. Abel Heat Test (Explosives Act, 1875).—The test paper is impregnated with potassium iodide and starch. (See paper by Robertson and Smart, Joum. Soc. Chem. Ind., Feb. 15, 1910). For detection of mercuric chloride or metallic mercury, the presence of which renders the Heat Test valueless, see method adopted by F. H. and P. V. Dupre, and described in the Annual Report of H.M. Inspectors of Explosives for 1907, p. 17. Hargreaves and Rowe (Joum. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1907, 26, 813) have worked out a method for the microscopic detection of mercury. 

H.M. Inspector s report shows that during 1909, out of 30,091,887 ll>s. of explosives Used in mines and quarries, 17,595,475 Ihs. were gunpowder. This constitnted 58.5 per cent, of the wliolr-Gunpowder is not a permitted explosive, and in Germany, also, its use in coal mines is forbidden, the prohibition being extended to all powders of the same type. 

---