Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise. P. Gerald Sanford
Detonators: Sizes, Composition, Manufacture—Fuses, &c.
THE FULMINATES.
Composition, Formula, Preparation, Danger of, &c.—Detonators: Sizes,
Composition, Manufacture—Fuses, &c.
CHAPTER VI.—SMOKELESS POWDERS IN GENERAL.
Cordite—Axite—Ballistite—U.S. Naval Powder—Schultze's E.C. Powder—
Indurite—Vielle Poudre—Walsrode and Cooppal Powders—Amberite—
Troisdorf—B.N. Powder—Wetterin—Normal Powder—Maximite—Picric Acid
Powders, &c. &c.
CHAPTER VII.—ANALYSIS OF EXPLOSIVES.
Kieselguhr Dynamite—Gelatine Compounds—Tonite—Cordite—Vaseline—
Acetone—Scheme for Analysis of Explosives—Nitro-Cotton—Solubility Test—
Non-Nitrated Cotton—Alkalinity—Ash and Inorganic Matter—Determination
of Nitrogen—Lungé, Champion and Pellet's, Schultze-Tieman, and Kjeldahl's
Methods—Celluloid—Picric Acid and Picrates—Resinous and Tarry Matters—
Sulphuric Acid and Hydrochloric Acid and Oxalic Acid—Nitric Acid—
Inorganic Impurities—General Impurities and Adulterations—Potassium
Picrate, &c.—Picrates of the Alkaloids—Analysis of Glycerine—Residue—
Silver Test—Nitration—Total Acid Equivalent—Neutrality—Free Fatty
Acids—Combined Fatty Acids—Impurities—Oleic Acid—Sodium Chloride—
Determination of Glycerine—Waste Acids—Sodium Nitrate—Mercury
Fulminate—Cap Composition—Table for Correction of Volumes of Gases, for
Temperature and Pressure
CHAPTER VIII.—FIRING POINT OF EXPLOSIVES, HEAT TESTS, &C.
Horsley's Apparatus—Table of Firing Points—The Government Heat Test
Apparatus, &c., for Dynamites, Nitro-Glycerine, Nitro-Cotton, and
Smokeless Powders—Guttmann's Heat Test—Liquefaction and Exudation Tests—
Page's Regulator for Heat Test Apparatus—Specific Gravities of
Explosives—Will's Test for Nitro-Cellulose—Table of Temperature of
Detonation, Sensitiveness, &c.
CHAPTER IX.—THE DETERMINATION OF THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF EXPLOSIVES.
Effectiveness of an Explosive—High and Low Explosives—Theoretical Efficiency—M.M. Roux and Sarrau's Results—Abel and Noble's—Nobel's Ballistic Test—The Mortar—Pressure or Crusher Gauge—Calculation Volume of Gas Evolved, &c.—Lead Cylinders—The Foot-Pounds Machine—Noble's Pressure Gauge—Lieut. Walke's Results—Calculation of Pressure Developed by Dynamite and Gun-Cotton—McNab's and Ristori's Results of Heat Developed by the Explosion of Various Explosives—Composition of some of the Explosives in Common Use for Blasting, &c.
INDEX
NITRO-EXPLOSIVES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The Nitro-Explosives—Substances that have been Nitrated—The Danger Area—
Systems of Professors Lodge, Zenger, and Melsens for the Protection of
Buildings from Lightning, &c.
The manufacture of the various nitro-explosives has made great advances during late years, and the various forms of nitro-compounds are gradually replacing the older forms of explosives, both for blasting purposes and also for propulsive agents, under the form of smokeless powders. The nitro-explosives belong to the so-called High Explosives, and may be defined as any chemical compound possessed of explosive properties, or capable of combining with metals to form an explosive compound, which is produced by the chemical action of nitric acid, either alone or mixed with sulphuric acid, upon any carbonaceous substance, whether such compound is mechanically mixed with other substances or not.[A]
[Footnote A: Definition given in Order of Council, No. 1, Explosives Act, 1875.]
The number of compounds and mixtures included under this definition is very large, and they are of very different chemical composition. Among the substances that have been nitrated are:—Cellulose, under various forms, e.g., cotton, lignin, &c.; glycerine, benzene, starch, jute, sugar, phenol, wood, straw, and even such substances as treacle and horse-dung. Some of these are not made upon the large scale, others are but little used. Those of most importance are nitro-glycerine and nitro-cellulose. The former enters into the composition of all dynamites, and several smokeless powders; and the second includes gun-cotton, collodion-cotton, nitrated wood, and the majority of the smokeless powders, which consist generally of nitro-cotton, nitro-lignin, nitro-jute, &c. &c., together with metallic nitrates, or nitro-glycerine.
The nitro-explosives consist generally of some organic substance in which the NO_{2} group, known as nitryl, has been substituted in place of hydrogen.
Thus in glycerine,
|OH C_{3}H_{5}|OH, |OH
which is a tri-hydric alcohol, and which occurs very widely distributed as the alcoholic or basic constituent of fats, the hydrogen atoms are replaced by the NO_{2} group, to form the highly explosive compound, nitro-glycerine. If one atom only is thus displaced, the mono-nitrate is formed thus,
|ONO_{2} C_{3}H_{5}|OH; |OH
and if the three atoms are displaced, C_{3}H_{5}(ONO_{2})_{3}, or the tri- nitrate, is formed, which is commercial nitro-glycerine.
Another class, the nitro-celluloses, are formed from cellulose, C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}, which forms the groundwork of all vegetable tissues. Cellulose has some of the properties of the alcohols, and forms ethereal salts when treated with nitric and sulphuric acids. The hexa-nitrate, or gun-cotton, has the formula, C_{12}H_{14}O_{4}(ONO_{2})_{6}; and collodion-cotton, pyroxylin, &c., form the lower nitrates, i.e., the tetra- and penta-nitrates. These last are soluble in various solvents, such as ether-alcohol and nitro-glycerine, in which the hexa-nitrate is insoluble. They all dissolve, however, in acetone and acetic ether.
The solution of the soluble varieties in ether-alcohol is known as collodion, which finds many applications in the arts. The hydrocarbon benzene, C_{6}H_{6}, prepared from the light oil obtained from coal-tar, when nitrated forms nitro-benzenes, such as mono-nitro-benzene, C_{6}H_{5}NO_{2}, and di-nitro-benzene, C_{6}H_{4}(NO_{2}){2}, in which one and two atoms are replaced by the NO{2} group. The latter of these compounds is used as an explosive, and enters into the composition of such well-known explosives as roburite, &c. The presence of nitro groups in a substance increases the difficulty of further nitration, and in any case not more than three nitro groups can be introduced into an aromatic compound, or the phenols. All aromatic compounds with the general formula, C_{6}H_{4}X_{2}, give, however, three series. They are called ortho, meta, or para compounds, depending upon the position of NO_{2} groups introduced.
Certain regularities have been observed in the formation of nitro- compounds. If, for example, a substance contains alkyl or hydroxyl groups, large quantities of the para compound are