Each tries to get as far away from every
other as it can. There is no cohesive force; no attractive impulse;
nothing to draw them together except the all too feeble power of
gravitation. The hotter they get the more they try to disperse and so
the gas expands. The gas represents the extreme of individualism as
steel represents the extreme of collectivism. The combination of the two
works wonders. A hot gas in a steel cylinder is the most powerful agency
known to man, and by means of it he accomplishes his greatest
achievements in peace or war time.
The projectile is thrown from the gun by the expansive force of the
gases released from the powder and when it reaches its destination it is
blown to pieces by the same force. This is the end of it if it is a
shell of the old-fashioned sort, for the gases of combustion mingle
harmlessly with the air of which they are normal constituents. But if it
is a poison gas shell each molecule as it is released goes off straight
into the air with a speed twice that of the cannon ball and carries
death with it.
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