Guns That Point at Tokyo
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Guns That Point at Tokyo
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Guns that point at Tokyo
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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THANKS to a rusty pipe, produc-
tion of smokeless powder for Al-
lied machine-gun and rifle. car-
tridges has been speeded up 500
percent. Preparing the main in-
gredient, nitrocellulose, formerly
required 100 hours’ washing with
boiling water to remove traces of
acid. Using this method as a “con-
trol test” for comparison, Dr. Fred
Olsen, Western Cartridge Company
technician, vainly sought a chemi-
cal short cut, until he ran out of dis-
tilled water and used tap water in-
stead. Next day he found that rust
from the pipe had made the con-
trol test successful. Behaving like
a dye, it hung onto the nitrocellu-
lose while the acid vanished. Hunt-
ing more effective dyes, Dr. Olsen
tinted nitrocellulose every hue of
the rainbow, but found the best
chemical a colorless dyestuff called
diphenylamine. Besides reducing
washing time, it produced a better-
keeping product than ever before.
Offshoots of the discovery led to
use of ethyl acetate, widely used in
nail polish, to make creamy bubbles
of nitrocellulose; and recovery of
the washed powder in the new form
of tiny spherical pellets resembling
miniature BB shot. Drying takes
place under a battery of infrared
lamps, so adjusted that the rays
penetrate the powder. Then a rotor
coats the powder with graphite,
just as the drugmaker's “sweetie
barrel” coats bitter pills.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Arthur Grahame (writer)
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Frank Hubbard (illustrator)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1943-12
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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49, 51
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Matteo Ridolfi
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, vol. 143, n. 6, 1943
