A fruit of war.

At last it is getting warmer and the buds of the horse-chestnuts are bursting open. Hopefully there will be a rich harvest of fruits so that we lads, young or young at heart, can look forward to some serious conker battles later in the summer.

I recently discovered that conkers were involved in much more serious battles in the two world wars. They were used as a source of starch which was then fermented to make acetone using the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum. The acetone was then used as a solvent in the manufacture of cordite, a smokeless propellant used in military armaments.