Gunpowder and Explosives

In the 8 century ad it was discovered in China that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining 75% saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 10% sulfur and 15% charcoal. This gunpowder became known in Europe from the Middle Ages and was used for mihtary applications and in mining. From the beginning the powder was utilized in fireworks and so is the case also nowadays. 

Ammonium nitrate NH NOj is used as a fertiHzer and originally its explosive power was not known. The first Haber-Bosch equipment was built at Oppau in Lud-wigshafen, Germany. In 1921 a large quantity, some 4500 tonnes, of fertilizer of ammonium nitrate type had been stored and was causing problems, because the substance had hardened to a mass that was impossible to handle and spread. In order to loosen it up, some dynamite cartridges were installed and detonated. Everything exploded, and five hundred people were killed. 

In more recent times, mixtures of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO) are generally utiHzed as explosives in construction work, because of their low price and absence of unhealthy nitroglycerin vapors. However they require a highly effective blasting fuse. They have also been used in terrorist attacks in the USA, such as for instance one in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

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Uses The largest use is in the manufacture of fertilizers. It is also used to make one of the raw materials for nylon, virtually all gunpowder and explosives (nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, TNT, ammonium nitrate, etc.) and the starting materials for polyurethane elastomers and paints. 

Q. I have asked you whether you informed your colleagues about the turnover of dynamite, gunpowder, and explosives in Dynamit A.G. Now I want to ask you whether, by their positions and duties within Farben, your colleagues must have informed themselves without your saying a word.. .. I show you a photostat. This is the technical committee s Sparte III chart, prepared by Dr. Struss.. .. Do you see the words "Sparte III" in the righthand comer ... 

III), which directed the production of photographic materials, artificial fibers, gunpowder, and explosives. Chairman and member of various European munitions firms. 

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. 

Claude Louis Berthollet (1748-1822) must not be mistaken for another important French chemist, Marcellin Pierre Eu ne Berthelot (1827-1907). Both were interested in gunpowder and explosives, which adds to the possibility of confusion. 

Nitric acid (HNO3) assumed a central role among chemicals with applications in munitions, because all modern gunpowders and explosives are nitric acid derivatives. It became clear even before the transition to positional warfare that the 600 tons of explosives and 475 of gunpowder per month called for in the mobilization plan were amounts far too little to conduct the war, but even then the kinds and amounts that would be necessary on a regular basis remained unclear. For a time each arm had to make a new monthly calculation. The dimensions of the problem become clear if one reckons the quantity of nitrogen to which the army and navy... 

Du Pont and the other makers of gunpowder and explosives formed a trust in the early 1870s that lasted until 1904. Hounshell and Smith, Science and Corporate Strategy Du Pont R D, 1902-1980, 11-13. The new generation of du Fonts is discussed in Chandler and Salsbury, Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation, Chandler, Strategy and Structure, 52-67 Dyer and Sicilia, Labors of a Modern Hercules Evolution of a Chemical Company, 33-41 Taylor and Sudnik, Du Pont and the International Chemical Industry, 22-25, 30-34. 

Self sustaining internal combustion propagating by means of molecular heat transfer slower than the speed of sound (the explosion mechanism gunpowder and other low explosives)... 

We couldn t believe our ears. Sprecher reminded the court that even the defense appreciated that "who operated Dynamit A.G." was not the only question. Suppose Farben owned less than 50 per cent (They owned a good deal more, really.) The Farben directors still knew that Dynamit A.G. couldn t put out a pound of explosives without Farben s preliminary products. Without stabilizers, Dynamit A.G. couldn t even make sporting ammunition. Stabilizers were the agents that prevented premature explosion in gunpowder. And Farben made all the stabilizers in Germany. The Farben directors knew, too, how many other preliminary products they were shipping to Dynamit A.G. 

Collectively, the thermal analysis techniques can be used to compare different batches of gunpowder and its constituents or to make more fundamental studies of, for example, the stability of the explosive under various physical or chemical conditions. 

A bundle of such tubes is then inverted such that an explosive charge consisting of fine grain gunpowder and mealed gunpowder can be loaded in. After this a length of Bickford-type safety fuse is glued into the top of each loaded tube. Finally a mealed powder primer and blue touch-paper are applied to the fuse end. 

Nitric acid is one of the most important industrial chemicals in the world. Its largest use is in the fertdizer industry for producing various nitrate fertd-izers. Such fertilizers include ammonium-, sodium-, potassium-, and calcium nitrates. Other major apphcations of nitric acid are in making nitrates and nitrooganics for use in explosives, gunpowder, and fireworks. Ammonium nitrate, nitroglycerine, nitrocellulose, and trinitrotoluenes are examples of such explosives, while barium and strontium nitrates are used in fireworks. 

Since black powder is relatively low in energy, it leaves a large proportion of corrosive solids after explosion and absorbs moisture readily, it was succeeded in late 1800s by smokeless gunpowder and picric acid. The first smokeless powder, known as cordite, was invented by tbe English chemists Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Augustus Abel in 1889. It was made in two forms a gelatinized nitrocellulose and a mixture of NC and NG with a small quantity of petroleum jelly added to act as a stabilizer. Smokeless powder soon became tbe primary ammunition for use in pistols. 

The result a are compared to a standard expl, such as picric icid, gunpowder or mercury fulminate, and expressed as a ratio known as figure of insensitiveness. This ratio represents the relative energies of the impact required to produce explosions of equal degrees of completeness from initial decomposition to complete detonation. Picric Acid is taken as 100, and explosives giving higher numbers are less sensitive while those giving lower numbers are more sensitive than picric acid. Ref R.Robertson, JCS 119 1,15(1921)... 

A,B.Bofors Nobelkrut,"Manual on Powder and Explosives ,Bofors,Sweden(1960), 190-1 34a)J.R.Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder,Heffer,Cambridge,England(I960)... 

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