When TNT became scarce during the war, the British introduced the high explosive amatol, essentially a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate.Ī variety of First World War artillery shells on display in the museum of the Somme Association’s Ulster Tower memorial, Thiepval, France. Ammonal, an explosive mixture containing ammonium nitrate, NH 4NO 3, and aluminium, was used not only for filling shells, hand grenades, and trench mortar bombs, but also as a blasting explosive in tunneling operations. The compound was first prepared by a German chemist in 1863. Trinitrotoluene (usually abbreviated to TNT), C 6H 2(NO 2) 3CH 3, was employed extensively by all sides as a high explosive to fill shells. The British called the explosive “lyddite” after Lydd, a town in the south of England where it was manufactured. A wide variety of these explosives were used in the war, including picric acid, which has the formula C 6H 2(NO 2) 3OH. The shock wave travels faster than the speed of sound. High explosives explode virtually instantaneously when detonated. The Germans bombarded the French with 100,000 shells in the first hour of their attack on the city of Verdun on 21 February 1916. British 18-pounder guns, for example, fired 86 million shells in the war. Millions upon millions of artillery shells filled with high explosives were fired in the First World War. He called the war, “the chemists’ war.” High Explosives and Propellants Pilcher was Registrar and Secretary of Britain’s Institute of Chemistry, of the forerunners of the Royal Society Chemistry. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! How Chemistry Changed the First World War (The History Press, Stroud, 2012) Īn Introduction to Ionic Liquids (RSC Publishing, Cambridge, 2009).Ĭhemists were needed to control the manufacture of “munitions, explosives, metals, leather, rubber, oil, gases, food, drugs,” noted British chemist Richard Pilcher in an article published in 1917. The Chemists’ War: 1914-1918 (Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2014) He is the author, co-author, or editor of more than ten books on chemistry and related subjects. He was then appointed Science Writer in Residence, a part-time post, at Queen’s University Belfast and Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories for three years until 2010. From 1994 to 2007 he was European Science Editor/Senior Correspondent for Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. In 1985, he joined IUPAC as Information Officer and editor of Chemistry International. From 1971 to 1985, he taught chemistry at various levels both in the UK and abroad. After a post-doctoral research fellowship at Oxford University (1967-1969), he worked in the chemical industry for two years. Michael Freemantle is a science writer and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Published by De Gruyter JanuChemistry & War: How Chemistry Underpinned the Great War
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