Source of the Light recorded in Photographs of Shocked Granular Pressings

ABOUT ten years ago Stewart Paterson 1 illustrated by means of several wave-speed photographs the previously discovered 2 fact that a large part of the light from a detonating charge was due to the system of shock waves produced in the surrounding air. Further, he showed that the light still reachin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1962-01, Vol.194 (4826), p.370-371
Main Authors: BLACKBURN, J. H., SEELY, L. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:ABOUT ten years ago Stewart Paterson 1 illustrated by means of several wave-speed photographs the previously discovered 2 fact that a large part of the light from a detonating charge was due to the system of shock waves produced in the surrounding air. Further, he showed that the light still reaching the camera when light from these shock waves was eliminated did not arise from chemical reaction of the explosive. He accomplished this by observing the light from a water-surrounded high-explosive charge which included in its length short sections of granular sodium chloride kept dry by a thin plastic tube. The explosive parts of the charge gave very faint wave-traces, but the salt layers gave very intense bursts of light as the disturbance passed through them. Additional photographs showed that a similar brilliant light was produced by explosives when in a granular loose-pressed form.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/194370a0