Tracer Mixture
tracer mixture
[′trā·sər ‚miks·chər] (ordnance)
A pyrotechnic composition used for loading tracer bullets.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Tracer Mixture
a pyrotechnic composition that makes visible the trajectory of rapidly moving objects, such as bullets or shells.
Tracer mixtures may produce fire or smoke; the first type is more common. Mixtures that produce fire usually include a fuel such as magnesium, a metal nitrate oxidizer, and an organic binder, such as an artificial resin. For small-caliber bullets (up to 5.62 mm), tracer mixtures that contain zirconium, KC104, and polyvinyl acetate are also used. Tracer mixtures burn at a rate of a few millimeters per second, producing a bright (thousands of candlepower) white or red flame.
REFERENCES
See references under PYROTECHNICS.The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.