Common Science

by Carleton Washburne

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.

Fig. 181. The most powerful explosions on earth occur in connection with volcanic activity. The photograph shows Mt. Lassen, California, the only active volcano in the United States.

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.