The Initial Stages of Gaseous Explosions. Part I. Flame Speeds during the Initial "Uniform Movement"

Our knowledge of the initial stages of gaseous explosions principally rests upon foundations laid by Mallard and Le Chatelier in their classical 'Recherches Experimentales et Theoriques sur la Combustion des Melanges Gazeux Explosifs' published in the year 1883. They showed that, in general, gaseous explosions pass through certain well-defined stages, commencing with a comparatively slow flame propagation, which is soon accelerated, and culminating in the phase of maximum speed and intensity known as “detonation,” as had been discovered independently by Berthelot and Vieille two years previously