British Commercial Explosives

The starting point of the present British commercial explosives industry was the formation of the British Dynamite Company in 1871 by Alfred Nobel and a group of Glasgow business men. Ardeer factory in Ayrshire... 

British Commercial Explosives, Including Dynamites. See Vol 3, pp C437 to C438 and C450, C452 C453... 

British Commercial Explosives. Advances in British coml HE s is discussed in detail by Taylor (Ref 1). See also Ref 2, British Ammonals in Vol l,pp A289, A290 A291-R and British Ammonium Nitrate Gelatin Dynamites in Vol l,p A368(table) Ref 1)J.Taylor,Research(London) 1947,67-76(a review with 59 refs) CA 42,2105(1948) 2)Taylor Gay( 1958), 1-50 86-106... 

British Commercial Explosives of Nonpemitted Type are listed in Ref 28a, pl4 and Ref 49, p 26). They include Ammonal LAN 83, TNT 12... 

British Dynamites. See under British Commercial Explosives in Vol 3, PP C437, C438 C450... 

N.E.C. is the major manufacturer with a complete range of explosives and accessories, with factories in Scotland, Wales and England. Explosives and Chemical Products Ltd., with factories in England, is the other manufacturer of explosives for sale. The major commercial manufacturer of ammunition is Imperial Metal Industries (Kynoch) Ltd. at Witton near Birmingham. The British Government has of course a number of Royal Ordnance Factories and establishments to cover all aspects of military explosives. 

NAX (North American Explosives), a subsidiary of Ensign-Bickford Co., in partnership with Royal Ordnance of England, manufiictures a sheet product called Primasheet 1000. This mixture contains 65% PETN, 8% NC, and 27% plasticizer. It is olive colored and comes in various thicknesses that include 1, 1.5,2, 3,4,5,6, and 8 millimeters. Another sheet from this company, Primasheet 2000, is their commercial version of the British military sheet explosive SX2. This material is a deep, almost Kelly green color. It contains 88.2% RDX and the balance is plasticizer. It is available in thickness of 2-7 mm in 1-mm increments. 

One of the earliest attempts to make commercial use of starch nitrate was advanced by Davey, who, in 1863, obtained a British patent for improvements in the manufacture of gunpowder and explosive compounds. His use of mixed acids in the proportion of 1 of nitric acid to 3 of sulfuric acid should have been fairly satisfactory, but he boiled the slurry Whatever resulted could hardly have contributed to the propellants of the day. 

Cyclic nitramines such as RDX or cyclotetra-methylenetetranitramine (HMX) are widely used in military composites such as Composition B (TNT and RDX) and Composition C-4 (US) or PE-4 (British) and in commercial blasting explosives such as Semtex (a Czech-made mining explosive). HMX is present as a by-product in RDX made by the Bach-mann process and has applications in explosives to be used in high-temperature environments. Chemical tests for RDX include the J-Acid and thymol tests. A number of TLC systems for RDX and HMX have been reported. With adequate sample, IR identification of the pure material in a micro-potassium bromide pellet is simple. If a diamond anvil sample holder or microscope attachment is available, excellent spectra of pure samples of milligram size or even of single crystals are easily obtained. When HMX is observed in RDX-based explosives, its concentration may suggest the national origin of the explosive. 

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