A purpose of science is to organize diversified factual knowledge into a coherent body of information, and to present this from the simplest possible viewpoint. This is a formidable task where our knowledge is incomplete, as it is with explosions. Here one runs the risk of oversimplification, naivete, and incom pleteness. Nevertheless a purpose of this work is to present as simply as possible a general description of the basic nature of explosions. This treatise should be of interest to all who are working with explosives such as used in construction or in demolition work, in mining...