>>96824166
Shimose Powder - The modern world of chemistry has been the unsung hero of the century, and certainly overlooked since the discoveries made within the inner earth. However, just as every other field of science, it continues to advance apace. In addition to penicillin, quinine, and the more recognizable innovations, smokeless blasting powder and propellants have come into use in the most modern of weapons. Even Japan, whose small but burgeoning chemical industry has had the chance to skip the prior three hundred years of mass poisonings and laboratory accidents the history of chemistry has demonstrated in the rest of the world, has contributed their own innovation on the advent of modern explosives and propellants. Namely, the Shimose Powder, as the naval engineer Shimose Masachika, not unlike those propellants based on picric acid that are currently in use in Western navies. However, picric acid itself becomes unstable upon contact with iron and other heavy metals. To combat this, the western powers dilute the mixture with vaseline or other colloids, losing some of the explosive power that picric acid offers. The Japanese, instead, have applied the resin of the Oriental Lacquer Tree, and sealed away the acid from contact with the shell housing, maintaining the excellent explosive potential without dilution.