Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise

F EXPLOSIVES,

ble of Firing points-T

s-Nitro-Glycerine, Nit

d Exudation Tests-Page'

vities of Explosives-T

, Sensitiv

a rather larger one in the centre in which to place a thermometer. The dish is filled with Rose's metal, or paraffin, according to the probable temperature required. The firing point is then taken thus:-After putting a little piece of asbestos felt at the bottom of the centre tube, the thermometer is inserted, and a small quantity of the e

VARIOUS EXPLOSIVES

s Apparat

o-nitro-cellulose | 201-213 Kieselguhr dynamite, No. 1 | 197-200 Explosive gelatine | 203-209 Mercury fulminate | 175-181 Gunpowder (shell) | 278-287 Hill's picric powder (shells) Been in store 10 years. | 273-283 Ditto (musket) Composed of- | 282-290 Ammonium picrate 42.18 % | Potassium picrate 53.79 " | Charcoal (alder) 3.85 " | ________ | | 99.82 | Forcite, No. 1 | 187-200 Atlas powder (75% NG) | 175-185 Emmensite, No. 1 Samp

in diameter and 1-15/16 inch long, is suspended over the bath by means of a triangle, so that the end of the case is just 1 inch below the surface of the molten material. On beginning the experiment of determining the firing point of any explosive, the material in the bath is heated to just above the melting point; the thermometer is inserted in

FIG. 46.-HEAT T

tation, has determined the firing point of s

iameter (b) and rests on a tripod stand about 14 inches high (c), which is covered with coarse wire gauze (e), and is surrounded with a screen of thin sheet copper (d). Within the latter is placed an argand burner (f) with glass chimney. The cover (b) has four holes arranged, as seen in Fig. II., No. 4 to contain a Page's[A] or Scheibl

m. Soc. Jour., 1876,

nches; rather thick glass is preferable. Indiarubber stoppers, fitting the test tubes, and carrying an arrangement for holding the test papers, viz., a narrow gl

ge from 30° to 212° F., or from 1°

m alcohol, absolutely necessary) are dissolved in 8-1/2 oz. of distilled water. The two solutions are thoroughly mixed and allowed to get cold. Strips or sheets of white English filter paper, previously washed with water and re-dried, are dipped into the solution thus prepared, and allowed to remain in it for not less than ten seconds;

ed acetic acid put on the paper with a glass rod produces no coloration. In process of time it will become br

is used, which is considered to be m

.00023505 grm. AmCl. With this caramel solution lines are drawn on strips of white filter paper (previously well washed with distilled water, to remove traces of bleaching matter, and dried) by means of a quill pen. When the marks thus produced are dry, the paper is cut into pieces

lycerine can be extracted in the manner described below, must satisfy the following test, otherwise they will not b

ches across (d), a cylindrical meas

ded glass rod or stopper, and some clean washed and dried kieselguhr (c) is spread over it to the depth of about 1/8 inch. Water is then poured on from a wash bottle, and when the first portion has been soaked up more is added; this

APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING

AMI

48.-TEST TUBE ARRA

nserted into the tube it will be in a vertical position. A sufficient amount of a mixture of half distilled water and half glycerine, to moisten the upper half of the paper, is now applied to the upper edge of the test paper by means of a glass rod or camel's hair pencil; the cork carrying the rod and paper is fixed into the test tube, and the position of the paper adjusted so that its lower edge is about half

. The mixture is then gradually introduced into the test tube, with the aid of gentle tapping upon the table between the introduction of successive portions of the mixture into the tube, so that when the tube contains all the mixture it shall be filled to the extent of 1-

cannot be expelled by water, are tested without any previous separation of the ing

pread out in a thin layer upon a paper tray 6 inches by 4-1/2 inches, which is then placed inside a water oven, kept as nearly as possible at 120° F. (49° C.). The wire gauze shelves of the oven should be about 3 inches apart. The sample is allowed to remain at rest for fifteen minutes in the

edge with a drop of the 50 per cent. glycerine solution, the tube inserted in the bath to a depth of 2-1/2 inches, measured from the cover, the regulator and thermometer being inserted to the same depth. The test paper is to be kept near the top of the test tube, but clear of the cork, until the tube has been immersed for about five minutes. A ring of moisture will about this time be deposited upon the sides of the test tube, a little above the cover of the bath. The glass rod must then be lower

ried in the oven as above for fifteen minutes, and exposed for two hours

ejected on account of the possible presence of foreign matter from the mill. The ground material is put on the top sieve of the nest of sieves, and sifted. That portion which has passed through the top sieve and been stopped by the second is taken for the test. If the mill is properly set, the greater portion of the ground material will be of the proper size. If the volatile matter in the explosive exce

become too soft in the acetone vapour for the mill, it should be cut up into small pieces, which may be brought to any desired degree of hardness by simple exposure to air. Explosives which consist partly

ittle difficult to give the test the same scope as it had when first introduced." As a rule a simple explanation can be found for every apparently abnormal re

ent is the same, except that when it is in a very

n, and allowed to cool. After cooling, add 50 c.c. of Price's double distilled glycerine, shake well, and keep the solution in a dark place. The test has to be applied in the following way:-The explosives that have to be tested are finely subdivided, gun-cotton, nitro-glycerine, dynamite, blasting gelatine, &c., in the same way as at present directed by the Home Office regulations. Smokeless powders are all to be ground in a bell-shaped coffee mill as finely as possible, and sifted as hitherto. 1.5 grm. of the explosive (from the second sieve in the case of smokeless powder) is to be weighed off and put into a test tube as hitherto used. Strips of well-washed filter paper, 25 mm. wide, are to be hung on a hooked glass rod as u

Aug. 1897) proposes to use hydroc

lat. The cylinder is to be placed on end on a flat surface without any wrapper, and secured by a pin passing vertically through its centre. In this condition the cylinder is to be exposed for 144 consecutive hours (six days and nights) to a tem

consistency than the bulk of the remaining portion of the material under any conditions of storage, transport, or use, or when the mater

160° F. It should not contain more than a minute trace of lead. One hundred parts of the dry material shall not contain more than 0.3 part of total

r Composition.~- These are required to stand the same

in nothing liable to reduce the chlorate. Chlorides calculated as potassium chloride must not exceed 0.25 per cent. The material must contain

s 5 inches long and 1/8 inch to 3/16 inch internal diameter. One and a half inch from the top of the stem is fused in at right angles a piece of glass tube, 1 inch long, of the same diameter as the stem, so as to form a T. A piece of glass tube (A), about 7/16 inch external diameter and 1-1/2 inch long, is fitted at one end with a short, sound cork (C, Fig. 50). Through the centre o

emical Soc. Jou

he stem of the thermometer, is now filled by means of the perforated cork at its lower extremity on the stem of the thermometer. The gas supply tube is attached to the top of the tube A, the burner to the T, so that the gas passes in at the top, down the fine tube B, rises in the space between B and the insi

FIG. 49.-PAGE

.-PAGE'S GAS REGULATOR

ARRANG

gas to the regulator is connected with the tube which brings the gas from the regulator to the burner by a small brass tap (Fig. 2). This tap forms an adjustable bye-pass, and thus a small flame can be kept burning, even though the regulator be completely shut off. It is obvious that the quantity of

Allow the gas to completely expel the air in the apparatus. Push down the tube A so that the end of B is well under the surface of the mercury. Turn off the tap of the bye-pass until the smallest bead of flame is visible

135° C.) is employed, the explosive being kept in a constantly changing atmosphere of carbon dioxide, heated to the same temperature: the oxides of nitrogen which result are swept over red-hot copper, and are then reduced to nitrogen, and finally, the rates of evolution of nitrogen are measured and compared. Dr Will considers that the best definition and test

Mitt. a. d. Centrallst

-Babelsberg Berlin

n that the acid decomposition products do not condense in any portion of the apparatus. The air in the whole apparatus is first displaced by a stream of carbon dioxide issuing from a carbon dioxide generator, or gas-holder, and passing through scrubbers, and this stream of gas is maintained throughout

[A] of the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey. The

ommercial article, after the bulk of the CO_{2} has been removed, the residual gas contains only a very small amount of air, which decreases in a gradual and perfectly regular manner. For example, one cylinder which gave 0.03 per cent. of air by volume, after three months' constant use gave 0.02 per cent. The advantage of using CO_{2} from this source is obvious w

Soc. Chem. Ind., Ju

-Will's Apparatus for

n a small sulphuric acid wash bottle. A mercury manometer is introduced here, and is useful for detecting a leak in the apparatus. The rate of flow that gives the most satisfactory results is 1,000 c.c. per

and 10 cm. high), the preheating worm being of the thinnest hydrometer stem tubing. The

tted with a lid perforated with two circular holes for the spiral tubes, is surrounded by an asbestos-covered envelope, in the interior of which circulate the products of combustion of numerous small gas jets. The stirrer, agitated by a water motor

e tubes is fitted a tightly packed reduced copper spiral. At the bottom the inlet tube dips into a layer of copper oxide asbestos, on the top of which is a layer of reduced copper asbestos. Through the indiarubber cork passes a glas

the condition under which it could be applied in the most sensitive and efficient manner. A variety of nitro-celluloses having been tested, there were chosen as typical, of stable and unstable products, service gun-cotton on the one hand, and an experimental gun- cotton, Z, on the other. The first point brought out by these experiments was the striking uniformity of service gun-cotton, first in regard to the rectilinear nature of the curve of evolution of nitrogen, and secondly in regard to the small range within which a large number of results is included, 15 samples lying between 6.6 and 8.7 mgms. of nitrogen evolved in four hours. In the case of service gun-cotton, little difference in the rate of evolution of nitrogen evolved is obtained on altering the rate of passage of CO_{2} gas through the wide range of 500 c.c. per hour to 2,500 c.

ig. 52.-Dr. Robe

-Service Guncotton for

tor

ut four hours; fresh caustic potash is added every thirty minutes or so. It is convenient to plot the results in curves. The curves

gen is generally given in cubic centimetres or in milligrammes, and readings taken every fifteen minutes. The steepness of the curve is a measure of the stability of the nitro-cellulose which is being examined. The steeper the curve the more nitrogen is evolved per unit of time, and the less stable the nitro- cellulose. In the case of unstable nitro-celluloses heated under the conditions described, the separation of nitrogen is much greater at first than at a later period. If the nitro-cellulose be very unstable, explos

2, pages 1545-1555, on the "Stability of Nitro-cellul

placed in one of the tubes in the bath previously brought to the boiling point (132° C.). The evolved oxides of nitrogen are absorbed in the water in the bulb, and at the end of two hours the tubes are removed from the bath, and on cooling, the water from the bulb flows back and wets the explosive. The contents of the tube are filtered and washed, the filtrate is oxidised with permanganate, and the nitrogen determined as nitric oxide by the Schultze-Tieman method. The authors conclude that a stable gun-cotton does not evolve more than 2.5 c.c. of nitric oxide per grm. on being heated to 132° C. for two hours, and a stable collodion-cotton not more than 2 c.c. under the same conditions. The percentage of moisture in the sample to be tested should be kept as

. Chem. Ind., xxiii.,

fter eight hours the watch glass and powder are weighed and the process repeated daily for six days or less. He claims that the powder is tested in its natural state, all the products of decomposition are taken into account, whilst in the old tests only th

heat gun-cotton to 140° C. in vacuo, and to measure continuously by means of a mercury manometer the pressure exerted by the evolved gases, the la

VITIES OF EX

glycer

ton (dr

cent. wa

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isti

ite

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rite

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cast picr

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o-benzene 1.

itro-benze

itro-benz

npowder, E

.B.C.

te (pow

uloi

ulos

m nitra

fulmin

TEMPERATURE O

g gelat

lycerin

mite

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te 2

c aci

rite

nitrat

O DETONATION (by Profess

do St

camphor 4 per cent. Explosive gelatine | 20 | NH_{4}NO_{3} 5 parts, (camphorated) | | C_{6}H_{4}(N0_{3}){2} 1 part. Judson powder, R.R.P. | 25 | Emmensite (No. 259) | 30 | Rack-a-rock | 32 | KClO{3} 79 parts, | | C_