Blackpowder ammonium nitrate

There have also been interesting and promising attempts to use ammonium nitrate as a component of high explosives. Particularly noteworthy are the experiments in which potassium nitrate in blackpowder is completely or partially replaced by ammonium nitrate to improve brisance. This led to the ammonium nitrate mixtures, Ammonpulver M90 and M96, 15/85 mm. They were employed in Austria for filling shells at the end of the nineteenth century but were not used for long, due to the difficulty of detonating them. 

Prior to the invention of smokeless powder various attempts had been made to improve blackpowder. In particular experiments were carried out to obtain sulphurless powder, ammonium powder (with ammonium nitrate instead of potas-... 

Ammonium powder (formerly termed amide powder) was obtained in attempts to increase the power of blackpowder. One of the causes of the relatively low power of blackpowder lies in the fact that on explosion it produces a great quantity of solid matter, but only a relatively small volume of gas. In working for an increase of the volume of the gaseous products in the middle of the nineteenth century, attempts were made to substitute ammonium nitrate for potassium nitrate. The observation of Reiset and Millon [29] that a mixture of ammonium nitrate and charcoal has explosive properties and explodes on being heated to 170°C was the starting point for this work. 

Another method was to dip blackpowder pellets in paraffin wax. This rendered them waterproof, and also surrounded them with a cooling sheath . A blasting powder made in this form called Bobbinite was introduced in Great Britain. It will be discussed later. These half-measures brought little improvement and attention was centred on the use of ammonium nitrate explosives. 

Common blackpowder or improved poudre H is also used in Belgium in opencast mines. The latter contains a certain amount of ammonium nitrate and is used only in mines when large charges of explosives are used. It is initiated exclusively by a detonating fuse. 

The composition of the combustible mass. The power of oxyliquits depends on the composition of the absorbent. D oxyliquits are very strong explosives with a performance resembling that of dynamite A oxyliquits have a performance equal to that of ammonium nitrate explosives P oxyliquits have a relatively slow action similar to blackpowder. 

The oxidizing agents, such as sodium or potassium nitrates, were described in the section on blackpowder (p. 342) and ammonium nitrate in Vol. II, p. 450. 

Ammonium nitrate was first prepared in 1654 by Glauber but it was not until the beginning of the 19th century when it was considered for use in explosives by Grindel and Robin as a replacement for potassium nitrate in blackpowder. Its explosive properties were also reported in 1849 by... 

The Hungarian, Kaspar Weindl used blackpowder in blasting. Swedish Bofors Industries began to manufacture blackpowder. Preparation of ammonium nitrate was undertaken by Glauber. The German, Kunkel prepared mercury fulminate. 

In 1869 Brugere [34] and independently F. Abel [35] suggested the use of ammonium picrate in a mixture with potassium nitrate instead of blackpowder. 

The new propellant was promising but the nitrocellulose smokeless powder invented soon afterwards superseded all mixtures containing potassium nitrate and similar salts, that give a number of solid particles when exploded. For a time in the United States various mixtures were still used instead of blackpowder—chiefly for sporting purposes. E.g. Gold Dust Powder (Starke [36]) consisted of 55% ammonium picrate, 25% potassium picrate and 20% ammonium bichromate. Soon, however, early in the nineteenth century, the use of these mixtures was discontinued. 

A classical paper on the composition of the explosion products of blackpowder and of the heat of reaction was published by Bunsen and Shishkov [41]. They ascertained that the gases formed constitute 31% of the charge and contain approximately 50% C02,40% N2,4% CO and lesser amounts (0.5-1.5%) of H2,02, H2S. Solid products consist of potassium carbonate, sulphate, thiosulphate, sulphide and nitrate with traces of potassium rhodanate, sulphur and carbon. These authors also detected the presence of ammonium carbonate. 

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