This concise, easy-to-read book outlines the basic principles needed to understand the chemical mechanisms of explosion. Written for students with no previous knowledge of explosives but some understanding of chemical reactions in mind, it takes the reader through the history of explosives and introduces the concepts of high explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics. Covering combustion, deflagration, and detonation; ignition, initiation, and thermal decomposition; thermochemistry, thermodynamics and kinetics, the text includes detailed formulations and reactions presented with thermochemical calculations to aid understanding. This edition includes environmental legislation and its impact on explosives, together with a section on safety hazard tests. It also contains the latest developments in synthesis and manufacturing of explosives. Covering all aspects of the properties of explosives, The Chemistry of Explosives is a unique text which introduces difficult subjects in a readable manner. Ideal for A-level students and new graduates with no previous knowledge of explosive materials, it will also be useful to anyone needing succinct information on the subject, such as the more experienced chemist in the explosives sector.

New technological innovations offer significant opportunities to promote and protect human rights. At the same time, they also pose undeniable risks. In some areas, they may even be changing what we mean by human rights. The fact that new technologies are often privately controlled raises further questions about accountability and transparency and the role of human rights in regulating these actors. This volume - edited by Molly K. Land and Jay D. Aronson - provides an essential roadmap for understanding the relationship between technology and human rights law and practice. It offers cutting-edge analysis and practical strategies in contexts as diverse as autonomous lethal weapons, climate change technology, the Internet and social media, and water meters. This title is also available as Open Access.

From prehistory to the present-day conservation movement, Pyne explores the efforts of successive American cultures to master wildfire and to use it to shape the landscape.

"On rare occasions, the historical literature is enriched by the introduction of a broad new field for study, by a book that dramatically expands the boundaries of scholarly investigation. Stephen Pyne's Fire in America is such a book. It achieves the Promethean goal of bringing fire to history". -- Science

"Stephen J. Pyne compels our admiration for his gargantuan ambition and richly informed intelligence. He tells us more than anyone else to date has about the role of fire in the landscape, tells us we have been wrong in assuming a pristine state of nature before the white man's invasion, tells us what fire has meant to the rise of civilization and this nation. No one interested in environmental history can afford to ignore this massive achievement". -- Journal of American History

This entertaining and informative book tells the dramatic tale of explosives from gunpowder to the H-bomb. Laying the emphasis on the lives of the people involved, on the diverse uses of explosives and on their social and historical impact, the author relates a story of remarkable international and human endeavour. Many of those involved - Roger Bacon, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, Robert Oppenheimer - are famed worldwide; others, such as C F Schonbein, William Bickford, Sir Frederick Abel and Charles E Munroe, though less well-known, also played critical roles. Alongside their achievements, this book highlights the uses and impact of explosives in both war and terrorism, and in civil engineering, quarrying, mining, demolition, fireworks manufacture and shooting for sport. In many cases explosives are seen to have had a significant historical impact as, for example, in the early use of gunpowder in the American Civil War, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the worldwide opening up of canals and railways.

Presenting a comprehensive overview of the fire resistance of building structures, this key text brings together a large volume of material from many sources on this increasingly important topic. Opening with the fundamentals of fires and fire safety, the book gives an introduction to real fire exposure and the response of strutures to such fires, outlining the important contribution of structural fire resistance to overall fire safety. Methods of calculating fire severity and achieving fire resistance are described, including fire performance of the main structural materials including structural steel, reinforced concrete and timber construction. Particularly valuable elements of the book are its design sections (incorporating international methods), where the arlier material is synthesised and recommendations are rmade for rational design of building structures exposed to fires.
Structural Design for Fire Safety provides expert guidance on:

• interpreting code requirements for fire safety
• understanding the concepts of fire severity and fire resistance
• estimating time-temperature curves for fully developed compartment fires
• understanding the behaviour of structural elements and buildings exposed to fires
• designing steel, concrete and timber structures to resist fire exposure
• assessing the fire performance of existing structures

In addition, the book includes valuable calculations and worked examples, unavailable elsewhere.
This is an essential book for structural engineers who wish to improve their understanding of buildings exposed to severe fires. It is also an ideal textbook for introductory courses in fire safety for a civil or structural engineering degree programme, and is vital reading for final year students in fire protection and fire safety engineering. Furthermore, it successfully bridges the information gap between fire safety engineers, structural engineers and building inspectors, and will be of significant interest to architects, code officials, building designers and firefighters.

This book provides chemists with technical insight on pyrotechnics and explosives. It emphasizes basic chemical principles and practical, hands-on knowledge in the preparation of energetic materials. It examines the interactions between and adaptations of pyrotechnics to changing technology in areas such as obscuration science and low-signature flame emission. The updated third edition discusses chemical and pyrotechnic principles, components of high-energy materials, elements of ignition, propagation, and sensitivity. It offers heat compositions, including ignition mixes, delays, thermites, and propellants and investigates the production of smoke and sound as well as light and color.

Propellants contain considerable chemical energy that can be used in rocket propulsion. Bringing together information on both the theoretical and practical aspects of solid rocket propellants for the first time, this book will find a unique place on the readers' shelf providing the overall picture of solid rocket propulsion technology. Aimed at students, engineers and researchers in the area, the authors have applied their wealth of knowledge regarding formulation, processing and evaluation to provide an up to date and clear text on the subject.

The book discusses new scientific developments in analysis of explosives and their applications. The areas of application include law enforcement, aviation security and environmental protection, subjects which are closely related to explosives analysis. The book is organised in six chapters covering explosive compounds and mixtures, chromatographic methods, mass spectrometric methods, analysis of explosives residues, environmental analysis of explosives and detection of hidden explosives. Modern Methods and Applications in Analysis of Explosives is written as a reference book for chemists in analytical and forensic laboratories, and for graduate students in analytical chemistry and forensic sciences.

Written for manufacturers, laboratory pyrotechnicians, and lay students, this book contains an enormous amount of invaluable data on the properties and production of pyrotechnic materials, on heat and light production, on aerosols, energy, and noise. Includes a manufacturing formulary, and a good reference section. Its wealth of information and highly readable style make it a must have in every pyrotechnician s library. These titles may also pair well with these books: Brauer, Karl O., Handbook of Pyrotechnics: ISBN 978-0-8206-0349-0 Rev. Ronald Lancaster, Fireworks, Principles and Practice, 4th Edition: ISBN 0-8206-0407-0; Weingart, George W., Pyrotechnics: ISBN 0-8206-0112-8 Visit us at www.chemical-publishing.com

This book deals with the chemistry and thermolysis of AP, AN, salts of nitric acid, salts of perchloric acid, polynitro compounds, NTO and salts of NTO are discussed. Thermolysis of plastic bonded explosives such as HMX, RDX, keto RDX with thermally stable polymers are also be included in the book. The last chapter of the book deals with ballistic modifiers for solid propellants.