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working constantly at full production. The rearmament after the
change of government, however, brought far-reaching changes. Growing Wehrmacht
requirements, particularly for the vehicle and plane industry, considerably
increased the use of magnesium in the fields which had been developed until
then. There was a marked increase in demand owing to the production of the
incendiary bomb, which had already been suggested in 1917 by Dr. Singer. The
bomb had already reached the finished stage towards the end of the first World
War and had been tested by a series of experiments; however, it was not used on
a large scale in 1918 by the Army High Command. In 1936, it was possible to
revert back to the stage reached in the development of the incendiary bomb. The
first departure from the previous stage of development was the use of the
incendiary charge [Heizsatz]. It was developed by Dynamit A.G. after the
pattern of the filling of the Eschbach thermite detonator. It was a compound
charge consisting of a mixture of permanganate-iron and aluminum powder-ferric
oxide-perchlorate with black powder primer. However, when these chemicals came
in contact with magnesium metal, corrosion very soon set in which greatly
reduced the igniting quality of the primers. Furthermore, as a result of its
oxygen content, the primer was vulnerable to small-arms fire and exploded
easily when overheated. Corrosion, which set in even when the bombs were
well-packed, prevented the storing of large amounts of finished incendiary
bombs. This made it necessary to change the incendiary charge; however, it was
not proposed to revert to the magnesium powder-ferric oxide-thermite charge as
used previously. An aluminum-thermite charge was not found to have any
particularly good incendiary qualities. An incendiary charge with an
aluminum-magnesium alloy, completely proof against corrosion and small-arms
fire, was developed. The built-in Sinoxide percussion cap with a sheet-metal
plate and locking ring of hydronalium, and the use of a very fine-grained
aluminum-thermite primer charge actually made it possible to store the
incendiary bombs indefinitely and guaranteed their functioning even from great
heights with a minimum of failures. The changeover and equipping of the filling
shops, and in some cases the finishing plants, as well as the supervision of
the filling chemicals was carried out by Dr. Neukirch.
As a result of
these developments the demand for magnesium grew by leaps and bounds so that
the Ministry of Aviation requested LG. Bitterfeld to expand its plants. Work
was begun in 1934 on the Aken plant on the Elbe for the production of 8,000
tons magnesium per year. After a building period of 8½ months it was
possible to produce magnesium metal in this plant. Whereas |
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