13/05/2024
“If you ever come across anything suspicious like this item, please do not pick it up, contact your local law and/or enforcement agency for assistance”.
Story by Ed Cumming
It would be nice to think that bombs become less dangerous with age. The worst time to encounter one is when it is falling towards your head, primed to blow. After that, their threat is diminished. The rusting old thing found by an excitable child in a quarry is something to be heeded, but less intimidating than when it was dropped by the Luftwaffe in 1940. Or so you might have hoped. Sadly for shell-thumpers and grenade-scrumpers, an increasing body of evidence points to the idea that such items might actually become even deadlier with the passage of time. A recent Norwegian study of unexploded shells found that Amatol, a type of explosive common in Second World War ordinance, not only doesn’t become less explosive with age, but can in fact become even more so. “Based on our findings, we can say that it’s relatively safe to handle, but you can’t handle it like TNT,” says Geir Petter Novik, a scientist at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. “It can certainly go off if it’s dropped, as opposed to TNT.” His study involved dropping weights from different heights on different types of explosive. Previous work had tested TNT and PETN, two of the other most common types of explosive, and found there was no drop-off in explosive properties, meaning they remained stable.
Biography of a Bomb
Dear editors, Biography of a bomb is aimed at highlighting the danger caused by unexploded bombs. Moreover, the most important aspect is that we work completely non profit, what drives us is raising awerness about this topic. We make use of your pictures and articles, but we need them to put a context in how findings are done. We trust in your understanding. We will (and we always do) cite the source and the author. We thank you for your comprehension.
