larly associated with ethylene oxide 45
is its tendency to polymerize during storage. Left
alone in a fuel air explosive weapon or other container,
ethylene oxide tends to self polymerize. The polymerized
material is unsuitable for use as a fuel for a fuel air
explosive device. Unpolymerized ethylene oxide, on the 50
other hand is highly desirable as a fuel insofar as
detonability is concerned. Clouds containing from as
little as 3 up to as much as 100 percent by volume of
ethylene oxide are detonable. The detonation limits of
propylene oxide, on the other hand, range from about
3.1 to about 27.5 percent by volume. 55

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has now been found that 1,2-butylene oxide, when
used as a fuel for fuel air explosive devices, exhibits
marked superiority over either ethylene oxide or propylene 60
oxide. The marked superiority stems from the fact that
1,2-butylene oxide is about 3 times safer than propylene
oxide when long exposure to it is required and about
3.5 times safer than ethylene oxide. Insofar as ease
of detonation is concerned, 1,2-butylene oxide has about 65
the same explosive limits as propylene oxide. However,
1,2-butylene oxide is significantly easier to handle
because its boiling point is nearly twice that of
propylene oxide--63 deg. C. as opposed to 34.2 deg. C.--and over
6 times that of ethylene oxide. According to this invention
1,2-butylene oxide may be used in either its natural 5
liquid state or gelled with a hereinafter named gelling
agent.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIMENTS 10

In one embodiment of this invention, neat 1,2-butylene
oxide liquid is used as the fuel in a fuel air explosive
weapon in lieu of the previously most commonly used
fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. It has been
found that butylene oxide is significantly less toxic than 15
either of the two commonly used oxides. Air containing
400 parts per million of 1,2-butylene oxide may be
breathed safely for up to 8 hours with no undesirable
results as compared to 100 parts per million for propylene
oxide and only 50 parts per million for ethylene 20
oxide.

1,2-butylene oxide offers a second distinct advant