The Big Bang A History of Explosives
George I. Brown
Review by Dave Caulkins
George Brown’s The Big Bang, subtitled A History of Explosives is a good popular treatment of explosives from the ninth century AD to modern times. The first third of the book is taken up with gunpowder, starting with its obscure origins in China. In a section on rockets, Brown mentions the use of metallic coloredflame agents. Most of what he says is right, but calcium gives an orange and not a red color, and antimony sulphide (sic) is not the agent of choice for white. He ends this part of the book with a brief (one paragraph) treatment of modern firearms. Unfortunately, the importance of two major advances—recoil-operated machine guns and fixed ammunition (projectile, propellant, and primer in a single cartridge)—is not mentioned.
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Ref: JPyro, Issue 14, 2001, pp74-75
(J14_74)
© Journal of Pyrotechnics and CarnDu Ltd
