Ebook Explosives and Their Power

The great work of M. Berthelot has for some years been a a mine from which copious stores of valuable matter have been obtained and translated into various languages. So far, however, no English translation or adaptation of the book, as a whole, has appeared. The idea of making such a translation, or, rather, condensation, of M. Berthelot's somewhat bulky volumes occurred some time ago to Mr. Hake and myself. Circumstances, however, notably the appointment of Mr. Hake to the Inspectorship of Explosives in the Colony of Victoria, and a considerable pressure on my own time, prevented our carrying out this project in the way originally intended. But Mr. Macnab, then associated with, and subsequently successor to, Mr. Hake in his London business, has undertaken and carried out the larger portion of the very laborious work involved, and thus it is really to his energy and kindness that the work as it now appears is due. M. Berthelot's reputation as a scientist is world-wide; his atten tion was first especially drawn to explosives in the year 1870, and his labours have been continued with little, if any, inter mission to the present time. The great key-note of the work now translated is the applica tion of thermo-chemistry to the study of explosives. Though not the first in this field, yet M. Berthelot has, in the extent and variety of his researches, eclipsed his colleagues, and it is mainly due to him that thermo-chemistry occupies the position which it now holds in this department of science.