Blasting powders, composition

Explosive Compositions are mixtures of explosive and non-explosive substances. They are listed in this Encycl as individual items such.e.s Amatols, Ammonals, Ammonium Nitrate Blasting Explosives, Black Powder, Compositions A, B, C D, Cyclonites, Dynamites and as Explosive Compositions listed-further in this Vol. (See also Composite Propellants described in Vol 3, pp C464 to C473)... 

Composition of blasting powders with sodium nitrate... 

In Germany, slow-action (non detonating) explosives of the blackpowder type (blasting powder, black blasting powder—see Table 78) were used even in dusty mines up to 1923 and typical high explosives (1910) with the composition given in Table 97, were also employed. 

The 6 1 1 and 6 1.2 08 formulas correspond to the quickest and most vigorous of the black-powder compositions. A slower and cheaper powder is desirable for blasting, and both these desiderata are secured by a reduction in the amount of potassium nitrate. For many years the French government has manufactured and sold three kinds of blasting or mining powder, as follows ... 

B-black blasting powder 31 35 Bengal fire works > pyrotechnical compositions 271 Benzit = trinitrobenzene (german)... 

Composition Approximately the same in composition as Blasting Powder B, modified slightly by the addition of various ingredients to control the physical and explosive properties of the respective grades. 

Smokeless powders have a composition somewhat different from that of black blasting powder and are used chiefly for sportsmen s ammunition and, more widely, for military purposes. They are decidedly sensitive to flame and impact but ordinarily are so packaged that if reasonable judgment is used they are relatively harmless. 

Among more than thirty patented compositions for blasting powder are the following ingredients. The specific combination in each case might be given would -space permit. 

Svartkrut. This is Swedish for black powder. The composition falls within the following limits potassium nitrate 74 to 78 percent, charcoal 12 to 15 percent, and sulfur 10 to 12 percent. For different grades of black powder, charcoals of different origin and methods of preparation are used. Powders used in shotgun shells contain charcoal from black alder carbonized in furnaces. Ordinary powders use charcoal made from birch, alder, willow, or linden and blasting powders use pinewood charred in kilns or furnaces. 

An explosive insensitive to mech and rifle bullet impact, but detonable by a blasting cap, is claimed in a US patent. It consists of Hydrogen Peroxide, water glycerol (Ref 3) Another patented high explosive composition contains powdered metal and Hydrogen Peroxide, eg 29.7% powd B 70.3% H202 (Ref 19)... 

L. A. Burrows G. A. Noddin, 36, 2725 (1942) Ignition composition suitable for blasting explosives comprised of finely divided colloided smokeless powder mixed with 15-25% of the Pb salt of a dinitrophenol such as 4,6-dinitro-cresol-[CH3. C6H2(N02)2O] 2 Pb USP 2268372 (1941)... 

The composition of Blasting Explosives may vary from that of a simple BkPdr (Black Powder) mixture of three ingredients to very complex mixts, such as Dynamites or their substitutes, contg as many as 20 ingredients... 

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