lyddite

[lid-ahyt]

noun

Chemistry.

1. a high explosive consisting chiefly of picric acid.

lyddite

/ ˈlɪdaɪt /

noun

1. an explosive consisting chiefly of fused picric acid

2. a dense black variety of chert, formerly used as a touchstone

Word History and Origins

Origin of lyddite¹

1885–90; named after Lydd, borough in SE England near the site where it was first tested; -ite ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of lyddite¹

C19: (sense 1) named after Lydd, a town in Kent near which the first tests were made

Example Sentences

“It seemed unbelievable but it was a fact. Then I wondered if what I had just come from was fact & caught sight of the yellow of the Lyddite or whatever the Bulgars used in their shells on my fingers & finger nails.”

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It was “like electric shocks in both legs” or “a lyddite shell,” as one author observed in 1900, just four years after the introduction of that explosive into the British Army.

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He explains that when "lyddite", an early type of high explosive, dries out it can become very unstable.

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Consequently, it would not be necessary to pick out the separate emplacements and guns for destruction, it would only be necessary to drop a steel projectile filled with high explosive, lyddite, for instance, on or near the range-finding bases.

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"A shell would never throw out a cloud of smoke like that; it's not the colour of lyddite either."

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