Combustion and Propulsion Research

Combustion chemistry is one of the oldest branches of chemical science. Among its pioneers must be counted Lavoisier, Bunsen, and others whose names belong among those of the founders of chemical science. That this close connection between combustion science and chemistry continues is well illustrated by the work of C. N. Hinshelwood and N. N. Semenov in elucidating chain reaction mechanisms, for which they shared the 1956 Nobel Prize. This work was at least partly motivated by difficulties in solving a classical problem in combustion science, viz., measurement of explosion limits for premixed gases in closed vessels