Section 52. _explosions._

What makes a gun shoot?

What makes an automobile go?

Usually we think of explosions as harmful, and they often are, of course. Yet without them we could no longer run automobiles; gasoline launches would stop at once; motorcycles would no longer run; gasoline engines for pumping water or running machinery would not be of any use; and all aviation would immediately cease. Tunneling through mountains, building roads in rocky places, taking up tree stumps, and preparing hard ground for crops would all be made very much more difficult. War would have to be carried on much as it was during the Middle Ages; soldiers would use spears and bows and arrows; battleships would be almost useless in attacking; modern forts would be of little value; cannon, guns, rifles, howitzers, mortars, and revolvers would all be so much junk.

WHAT MAKES AN AUTOMOBILE GO. In all the above cases the explosions are caused by chemical action. When gasoline mixed with air is sprayed into the cylinder of an automobile, an electric spark makes the gasoline combine with the oxygen of the air; the gasoline suddenly burns and changes to steam and carbon dioxid. As you already know, when a liquid like gasoline turns to gases such as steam and carbon dioxid, the gases take much more room. But that is not all that happens. Much heat is released by the burning of the gasoline spray, and heat causes expansion. So the gases formed by the burning gasoline are still further expanded by the heat released by the burning. Therefore they need a great deal more room; but they are shut up in a small place in the top of a cylinder. The only thing to hold them up in this small space, however, is a piston (Fig. 180), and the suddenly expanding gases shove this piston down and escape. The piston is attached to the drive wheel of the automobile, and when the piston is pushed down it gives the automobile a push forward. If it were not for the expansion of a gas in the cylinder, this gas being confined to a small space, the piston would not be pushed down.

An explosion is simply the sudden pushing of a confined gas expanding on its way to freedom. The gasoline vapor and air were the confined gas. Their chemical combining made them expand; by pushing the piston out of its way the newly formed gas suddenly freed itself. This was an explosion, and it gave the automobile one forward push. But the automobile engine is so arranged that the piston goes up into the cylinder again, and is pulled down again, drawing a spray of gasoline and air into the cylinder after it. Then it goes up a second time, an electric spark explodes the gasoline, the piston is forced down violently once more, and so it goes on. There are several cylinders, of course, and the explosions take place within them one after the other so as to keep the automobile going steadily.

HOW A GUN SHOOTS. Pulling a trigger makes a gun shoot by causing an explosion. There is a spring on the hammer of a gun. This drives the hammer down suddenly when you release the spring by pulling the trigger. The hammer jars the chemicals in the cap and causes them to explode. The heat and flame then cause the oxygen in the gunpowder to combine with some of the other elements in the powder to make a gas. The gas requires more room than the powder and is further expanded by the heat released by the chemical change. The expanding gas frees itself by pushing the bullet out of its way. The bullet gets such a push through the exploding of the gunpowder that it may fly to a mark and pierce it.

There is a slight explosion even when you shoot an air gun. First you compress some air in the upper part of the barrel of the air gun; then you suddenly release it. The only thing in the way of the expanding air is the bullet; so the air pushes this out in front of it.

In Experiment 36, where you stoppered a test tube containing a little water and then held the tube over a flame until the cork flew out, you were causing an explosion. As the water changed to steam, the steam was an expanding gas. It was at first confined to the test tube by the cork. Then there was an explosion; the gas freed itself by blowing out the cork.

Steam boilers have safety valves to prevent explosions. These are valves so arranged that when the steam expands and presses hard enough to endanger the boiler, the steam will open the valves and escape instead of bursting the boiler to get free.

EXPLOSIVES. Dynamite, gunpowder, and most explosives are mixtures of solids or liquids that will combine easily and will form gases that expand greatly as a result of the combination. One of the essentials in explosives is some compound of oxygen (such as the manganese dioxid or potassium chlorate you used to make oxygen in Experiment 93) which will easily set its oxygen free. This oxygen combines very swiftly with something else in the explosive, releasing heat and forming a gas that takes much more room. In its effort to free itself, this expanding gas will blast rocks out of the way, shoot cannon balls, or do any similar work.

But if gunpowder does not have to push anything of much importance out of its way to expand, there is no explosion. That is why a firecracker merely fizzes when you break it in two and light the powder. The cardboard no longer confines the expanding gas; so there is nothing to burst or to push violently out of the way.

Useful explosions are generally caused by a chemical action which suddenly releases a great deal of heat and combines solid things into expanding gases. But the bursting of a steam boiler, or the "blow out" of an automobile tire, or the bursting of a potato in the oven, although not caused by chemical action, still are real explosions. An explosion is the sudden release of a confined gas.

APPLICATION 77. Explain how gasoline makes a motorcycle go, and why it goes "pop, pop, pop." Explain why a paper bag will burst with a bang, when you blow it up and then clap it between your hands; why a Fourth-of-July torpedo "goes off" when you throw it on the pavement.

INFERENCE EXERCISE

Explain the following:

491. The engine of an automobile is cooled by the water that passes over it from the radiator.

492. When you light a firecracker, the flame travels down the wick until it reaches the gunpowder, and then the firecracker bursts with a bang.

493. If you light a small pile of gunpowder in the open, as you do when you make a squib by breaking the firecracker in two, you merely have a blaze.

494. Air-filled tires make bicycles ride much more evenly than solid tires would.

495. When clay has once been baked into brick, you can never change it back to clay.

496. A photographic negative turns black all over if it is exposed to the light before it is "fixed."

497. The outside of a window shade fades.

498. A vacuum electric lamp globe feels hot instantly when turned on, but if turned off again at once, it immediately feels cold.

499. Coal gas is made by heating coal very hot in an air-tight chamber.

500. White straw turns yellow when it is long exposed to the sunlight.