Maxim, 1909, High explosives in aerial warfare as a source of energy
Coming widespread use of airplanes; difficulty of using dynamite bombs; difficulty and expense of explosive propulsion; but Maxim proposes the practicality of a mixture called "motorite":
I have made a material, containing 70 parts by weight of nitroglycerin, forming a dense, rubbery material. This material I called motorite. The motorite is made in bars, a little over 5 ft. long and about 7 in. in diameter, and they weigh somewhat over 100 pounds.
The rate of combination of the motorite is perfectly regular under a given pressure, being about a foot per minute under 300 pounds, and each pound of motorite will evaporate somewhat more than two pounds of water, thereby yielding more than three pounds of mixed steam and products of combustion as a motive fluid for driving turbines, for each pound of motorite burned.
(There follows a letter from Maxim, under a different header—"The Aerial Battleship"—responding to an article in McClure's by Carl Dienstbach and T. R. Macmechen; in which Maxim further discusses some limitations to the wartime power of aircraft.)
| Original title | High explosives in aerial warfare as a source of energy |
|---|---|
| Simple title | High explosives in aerial warfare as a source of energy |
| Authors | Hudson Maxim |
| Date | 1909 |
| Countries | US |
| Languages | en |
| Keywords | military, explosive, bomb, propulsion, fuel, engine |
| Journal | Aeronautics (US |
| Related to aircraft? | 1 |
| Page count | 2 |
| Word count | |
| Wikidata id |
Sources
- Brockett (1921), page 854, entry 8: Maxim, Hudson. High explosives in aerial warfare as a source of energy. Aeronautics, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sept. 1909), New York, pp. 82-83. (B2p0854e08)
- Scan
