It is not affected by ordinary changes of temperature.
It requires thorough tamping to produce good effects.
Many high explosives are not injured by moisture, and some are unaffected by total immersion in water.
They generally burn without detonation if ignited by flame.
Some of them do not explode when struck by a bullet. The more sensitive ones do.
The properties of some of them are materially changed by freezing.
On account of their greater strength, the same effects may be produced by smaller charges, requiring smaller chambers and cases.
By reason of the violence of their action they produce good results even if imperfectly tamped.
The last two considerations, together with the possibility of using them in wet places without protection against moisture, lessen greatly the time required to excavate, charge, and tamp a mine, and may frequently enable the one using them to anticipate an enemy using gunpowder and thus secure success, when the use of gunpowder would reverse the situation. In mining operations and in expert hands the high explosives, upon the whole, seem to cause fewer accidents than gunpowder.