Mercury fulminate, a very sensitive and powerful explosive, was used only in caps, primers, detonators, etc., as a means of initiating detonation, on account of its own high rate of detonation. The three plants operating in this country to produce this explosive for commercial purposes, the du Pont Co., Pompton Lake, N.J., the Atlas Powder Co., Tamaqua, Pa., and the Aetna Powder Co., Kingston, N.Y., expanded their facilities sufficiently to meet our program. Their average monthly production in 1918 was 50,000 pounds at a cost of $3.21 per pound, and there was on hand in November, 1918, 330,900 pounds of this explosive. In the early stages of the war to meet the apparent shortage of T. N. T. and ammonium nitrate then existing because of our enormous explosives program, it was necessary to develop an explosive for trench warfare purposes that could be used for filling hand and rifle grenades, trench-mortar shell, and drop bombs. To meet this need, the Trojan Powder Co., of Allentown, Pa., submitted a nitrostarch explosive. After exhaustive investigations and complete tests, this explosive was authorized for use in loading the hand and rifle grenades and the 3-inch trench-mortar shell. Development of a nitrostarch explosive for commercial purposes had been under consideration and investigation by two other large experienced manufacturers for a number of years, but the difficulties incident to the production and purification of nitrostarch were such that their efforts had met with little success. The Trojan Powder Co., operating under secret process, solved this problem, and all nitrostarch explosives used were produced by this company, although another nitrostarch explosive known as "grenite," which was produced by the du Pont Co., was tested and authorized for use. Our country was the only Government that used nitrostarch explosives during the war, and the development of this explosive made the loading problem easier and made possible the use of materials that were available and whose cost was low. The average cost of this explosive was 21.8 cents a pound. In July, 1918, the average monthly production of nitrostarch was 840,000 pounds and this had been increased by November, 1918, to 1,720,000 pounds a month. There were loaded with nitrostarch explosive 7,244,569 defensive hand grenades; 1,526,000 offensive hand grenades; 9,921,533 rifle grenades and 813,073 three-inch trench-mortar shell. At the time of the signing of the armistice there was on hand of this explosive 1,650,500 pounds. The du Pont Co. developed an explosive called lyconite, and this was authorized for use in the loading of drop bombs. Anilite, a liquid explosive used by the French, was thoroughly investigated and improvements were made in it to render its use safer, but development had not progressed far enough to warrant authorization for its use prior to the signing of the armistice.