Research after World War

The flame of explosion. Experiments by Hiscock [27] and T. Urbanski [28] showed that the flame of safety explosives in firedamp and coal-dust is very small and its intensity insignificant. These explosives, differed little in the dimensions and intensity of flame produced in these tests. 

No definite relationship has been found between the dimensions of the flame and the ability of the explosive to ignite the methane-air mixture. According to Beyling, for instance, if the detonator is situated at the open end of the shothole, 

Payman found that a smaller charge of ammonium nitrate explosive (No. 2 Viking Powder, see Table 96) is more likely to explode the gas mixture than a larger one. This would be compatible with observation 1 on the other hand, on moving the charge nearer to the mouth of the shothole the flame is removed almost com- 

A detonator placed in the lower section of the charge is more likely to explode a methane-air mixture. This is attributable to the increase of flame, in accordance with observation 4. 

Such contradictory test results show that the safety of explosive cannot be assessed solely in terms of the dimension of the explosion flame. 

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Research on chemical agents after World War I led to the elimination of all but a handful of chemicals as being of practical batdefield significance. At the time of Wodd War II the only chemicals considered to be of practical significance included the mustard gases and phosgene. 

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. This adage says volumes about the early development of the laser. Unring World War II, U.S. mihtaiy and civilian scientists searched frantically for improved radar. Wliile these researchers met with only mixed success, their efforts spurred basic research. After the war, using knowledge gained from this line of inquiiy, the first successful laser was developed in 1960. 

Project-research, a method of organizing research by stipulation of projects and allocation of these to individuals or teams of scientists in separate laboratories, was developed in the United States during World War I in research on chemical warfare. This research was initially conducted largely by academic chemists as volunteers and later by them in the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army. Many of the leading American chemists in the 1920s shared the common experience of research on chemical warfare. The model of project-research was tried by the leaders of the division of chemistry and chemical technology of the National Research Council in order to allocate specific research problems and foster cooperative research after the war. 

This chapter will examine the nature of project-research as it developed in the organization of chemical warfare research during World War I and will suggest that this model may have played a significant role in the attempts at increased organization of chemical research in the United States after the war, especially in the division of chemistry and chemical technology of the National Research Council. 

In 1838 Macintosh and Hancock at Goodyear discovered how to take tacky naturai rubber from rubber trees and react it with suifur in the presence of heat to vuicanize the rubber to a nonstick compound that couid be usefui for items such as boots, rain coats, and tires. Synthetic rubber research started between Worid Wars I and II and progressed very quickly after World War II. The modern birth of soiid synthetic poiymers for commerciai products may be traced to Hyatt in 1868. He discovered how to react cellulose nitrate and camphor to produce a hard piastic that was used to fabricate billiard balls because ivory had become scarce. 

Confidence in government also characterized the time after World War II and during the Cold War. Over the history of our country it has been seen that one of the legitimate roles for the federal government is to provide for the national defense. There s been a lot of disagreement about many other tasks but not over this one. Military and security needs carried a lot of development throughout the post-World War II period. Of course, the Vietnam War led to less confidence in the government and caused the termination of classified research projects at universities. 

What were the reasons for the hesitant progress of modern genetics in Germany after World War II The reconstruction of the Max Planck Society (MPS) on the ruins of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes reflects the development of research and technology in general and of molecular genetics in particular, in relation to public and political support. 

Rapid advances in chemistry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, coupled with the success of mustard gas as a toxic weapon in World War I, attracted attention to the warfare potential of chemical agents. This led to support for research on lethal nerve agents during and immediately after World War II. The research was followed by the development of treatment methods, and prominent among these was the use of cholinesterase reactivators to reverse the lethal effects of anticholinesterase nerve gases. 

After World War II some standardization in composition was achieved largely as the result of international cooperation. The annual International Conferences of Directors of Safety in Mines Research greatly contributed to this. 

After World War I, major research programmes were inaugurated to find new and more powerful explosive materials. From these programmes came cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine [(RDX) (C3H6N606)] also called Cyclonite or Hexogen, and pentaerythritol tetranitrate [(PETN) (C5H8N4012)]. 

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