Woolwich Arsenal

Woolwich [Named after the British Government laboratory at Woolwich Arsenal, where it was invented] A process for making the explosive RDX by nitrating hexamethylene tetramine. 

Act of 1906 was founded. Following this Act, a gallery was constructed at Woolwich Arsenal and another more lately at Rotherham (Ref 11,... 

FI Test (Figure of Insensitiveness Test)(Brit). An Impact Sensitiveness Test devised about 1908 by Dr G. Rotter at the British Government Research Establishment, Woolwich Arsenal. Important changes were introduced in the method in 1966 by Mortlock and Wilby (Ref 4). The original method and the modifications are described... 

Note Accdg to ARE Repc No 8/54 (Ref 37, pp 2 8), investigation at Woolwich Arsenal showed the German claim that DEGDN proplnts produce less erosion than NG proplnts of the same ballistic potential was not valid... 

A similar powder was manufd later in the USA and was known as Russian Powder. In Engl, a similar powder was known as Baked Powder. Tests conducted in 1878 at Woolwich Arsenal indicated that this powder was no better than conventional BlkPdr. The same unfavorable results were obtained by a Colonel deMaria in Italy... 

Calorific Values of Explosives, Calorific value is defined by Weissberger (Ref 3) as the heat evolved when the substance is exploded in the absence of oxygen except for what it contains itself . This quantity is practically the same as the heat evolved when the substance is exploded under normal operating conditions (such as in bore holes or in shells). Experimental techniques differ somewhat from chose employed in ordinary combustion calorimetry. The bombs employed in calorific value techniques are smaller in capacity and possess very thick walls to withstand high pressures. For example the bomb described in Ref 2 is of 124cc capacity. It was developed at Woolwich Arsenal and modified by Taylor et al. 

Delete WAAC = Woolwich Arsenal RevScInst instead of RevChimlnd... 

G.P.Thring of GtBritain was the first to use a different type of spring and to record its displacement thru an optical system employing a tilted mirror (Ref 36, pl69)> His gage was designed for use on small arms and has been employed for some time at Woolwich Arsenal (Ref 15, pl5) and it was described in the British "Textbook of Small Arms (1929 edition)... 

Marshall (Ref 6) stated that the work carried in England at Woolwich Arsenal after WWI showed that all expls decompose to some extent in storage, evolving gas in accordance with the equation V = kt + C, where V is volume of gas evolved, t is the temp and C is a constant. For every 5°C increase in temp, the rate... 

Marshall 3 (1932), 208 (Decompn of expls as detd at Woolwich Arsenal) 6a)M-Lambrey,... 

He received his Ph.D. in summer 1940 and firmly wished to stay in fundamental research. He was offered a post at St. Andrews University which he could not take up because of World War II. Instead he was assigned to a war problem at Cambridge involving the synthesis of the then unknown 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-naphthalene, which Sir Robert Robinson anticipated to be an exceptionally effective explosive. In 8 months he managed to make 100 g of the compound but was then dispatched to the Research Department of Woolwich Arsenal, at that time evacuated to the University College at Swansea. There he spent most of his time in the library where he eventually found R. N. Keller s review on olefin metal complexes [3]. He remembered that Mann had mentioned in his lectures that olefins were the only ligating species that did not possess a lone pair of electrons, which prompted him to work on their complexes as soon as he was free to do so. 

It was her war work which initiated the choice of career for Patricia Hannah Green.109 Green was bom on 29 July 1919 in Pontypridd, Wales, and was educated at Howell s School, Llandaff (see Chap. 6). Interested in biological chemistry, she entered Girton in 1937 to study biochemistry, graduating in 1940, the same year she married Michael Clarke. She left Cambridge for war work at the Armament Research Department of the Ministry of Supply, initially at Woolwich Arsenal, and then at Swansea, researching the chemistry of explosives. 

G. W. C. Taylor, S. E. Napier, Phlegmatised Lead Azide, Armament Research Dept. Explosives Report 607/46, Woolwich Arsenal, London, England, 1946. 

Ministry of Supply, Chemical Inspectorate, CIP/353, Method EG3, 1.7.58 Test 5.8, Woolwich Arsenal, England. 

Strenuous efforts were made to recover the bombs trapped in the uncollapsed section of the Llanberis depot. The task was overseen by Dr Rotter, Director of Explosives Research at Woolwich Arsenal, who was later to be awarded the George Medal for his participation in the... 

Picric acid and TNT both require using boosters for conveying detonation to the main charge from the detonator and tetryl (2, 4, 6-trinotrophenylmethylnitramine) came into use for this purpose mainly because of the availability of diphenylamine in the dyestuffi industry. The Woolwich Arsenal Research Department had developed a batch process for its preparation by 1910 and it continued to be made by a similar method until World War II. 

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