Matter expls

Composition C, therefore, was replaced in the US by Composition C-2 which was a white plastic consisting of RDX 78.7% explosive plasticizer 21.3%. The expl plasticizer was composed of DNT 12.0%, TNT 5%, MNT 2.7%, NC (pyroxylin) 0.3% solvent 1.0%. Composition C-2 was plastic from -30° to 50°, but became less plastic at higher temp storage because of evapn of the volatile matter. Expl props of Comp C-2 are given in Ref 19, pp 53-4... 

Vorlage, /. something put before or in front specif., receiver absorption bulb (Zinc) coudenaer (Gaa) collector main (Expl.) antiflash bag matter, proposal, bill text, copy pattern. 

Explds at 60° after 13 sec in a sealed glass tube (Ref 4). Explds spontaneously when frozen and then thawed. Compd is a violent expl, extremely sensitive to impact or friction. It Jalso explds on exposure to strong light (sunlight or diffused), or when in contact with P, As, ozone, fused alkalies, and organic matter such as turpentine rubber, but not with sugar or resins. Metals strong acids do not cause it to expld,... 

The gas or liq may attack organic matter with expl violence (Ref 11). Instances of violent reactions with ammonia, sulfur trioxide, stannic bromide and iodide are documented (Ref 12)... 

Liq ozone in concns greater than 30% by wt is extremely unstable, and may expld on contact with even minute traces of organic matter. Not only all precautions for handling liq oxygen, but also extra precautions for a sensitive expl must be observed (Ref 4, p 430)... 

Some of the authors had drawn attention to the expl character of Picric Acid salts, but it was not until 1830 that Welter (Ref 3) suggested the possibility of using picrates as expls. At that time Picric Acid was prepared solely by the action of nitric acid on indigo. Marchand (Ref 6) expressed the view, which proved to be true, that it was aniline, formed as an intermediate product in the process of decompn of indigo, silk and other organic matter, that yielded Picric Acid under the influence of nitric acid... 

Many of the unsolved problems of physics and chemistry were concerned with combustion and detonation. A really well-developed scheme of normal combustion is seldom realized in nature. The most common form of gaseous combustion - turbulent combustion - was found to be the result of the hydrodynamic instability of the combustion process in a flow. Even in the simplest system, the physical scheme of turbulent combustion is very far from being perfectly understood. Just as in the analysis of detonative combustion, it is still possible to speak only of the universal instability of the hydrodynamic process accompanying the chemical transformation of matter. Actually, "turbulence is hardly the term for the result of the manifestation of this instability - the appearance of a multifront shockwave in the detonation front. However, the derivation of a complete physical scheme of detonation (especially in relation to condensed expls) will eventually follow from further research in this field... 

Lavoisier, A.L. (1743—1794). Fr Chemist, regarded as the father of modern chemistry by virtue of his study of combstn and the role of oxygen. He formulated the theory of the conservation of matter, and laid the basis for chemical nomenclature. From 1775 to 1791 he was in charge of expl manufg in Fr ( Regisseur des Poudres ). He was unjustly accused and executed during the Fr revolution Ref Hackh s (1944), 481-R (1969), 381-R... 

F.L. Shea, Jr., USP 2872305 (1959) CA 53, 7597 (1959) claims preparation of LOX by grinding a suitable bituminous material to a preferred particle size of 65—95% thru 200 mesh, and flash-calcining at >1150°F, preferably 1350—1650°F, with an oxidizing gas containing sufficient oxygen to oxidize all but about 10% of the volatile matter in the feed, which volatile matter should be 15—20% of the feed. The product thus obtained is then immersed in liq oxygen to form the expl... 

Probably one of the outstanding matters of interest was that the following expls stored did not detonate, but burned ... 

Blast Effect (BLE). It is the ability of an expl charge to destroy matter, or structures, located far from the site of expln... 

Propulsive Action (PrA) or Heaving Action (Propulsive Force). It was defined by the lateW.R. Tomlinson Jr, formerly of Picatinny Arsenal, as the ability of an expl or propellant charge to propel, or hurl matter or a projectile. This term has been used in industry to rate commercial expls and represents the same property as ballistic potential defines for propel lants. PrA is proportional to the "hot-gas-volume PrA = nRT, where n = gas volume per gram of the expl product at STP, R = gas cons-... 

Uses of Sodium Azide. The principal use of NaN, in the expl ind is in the prepn of alkali alkaline earth and other azides (Refs 37,38, 42,96,113,201,% others) (See Lead Azide, Plant Manufacture, etc). Meissner (Ref 44) used equiv quants of NaN, and a heavy metal salt, such as Pb acetate, for the continuous prepn of LA. Matter (Ref 33) found that NaN, was freed from carbonates by the addn of aq... 

This title is somewhat misleading. The following article is primarily concerned with expl reactions of fuel mists (and/or vapors) with oxygen of the air. The article does not include consideration of flash vaporizations that occur when very hot substances (molten A1 for example) come into contact with a volatile liquid (eg, water), nor does it concern itself with steam-boiler type explns. Thus the subject matter of this article deals with rapid fuel oxidations with the oxidant usually provided by the oxygen of the air, though reactions of monopropellant type mists will also be considered. Most of the fuels of interest are liquids at ordinary ambient conditions... 

In more recent years, as the kinetics of thermal decompn of expls began to be studied, questions arose whether partial vaporization and vapor phase decompn were important at temps well below the boiling point of the expl. Very recently, as criminal bombings became a matter of international concern, bomb detection schemes based on detection and identification of vapors of the expls used in such bombs were proposed. Expl vapor detection will not be addressed in this article (see under Tagging of Explosives in Vol 9). The interested reader is referred to a summary contained in Ref 25... 

X-ray absorption furnishes an absolute measure of the density of matter. However, in many applications the important observations to be made with X-rays concern the geometrical relationships of shock fronts and contact surfaces it is in this area where X-rays, because they make it possible to sefe inside the detonating expl, provide a uniquely appropriate tool. Until recently the difficulty has been the inability of available sources to penetrate charges more than a few inches in diameter. With the advent of the PHERMEX machine this difficulty has been overcome. Phermex provides a pulsed beam of 27 Me V electrons in 0.1 microsec bursts, which impinge on a tungsten target to generate X-rays that can easily penetrate several cm of HE. Recall that density of the shocked material can be related to particle velocity thru the conservation equations (see Vol 7, HI 79)... 

J. Eadie reported in Ref 71 that the shock sensitivity of HMX/wax compacts is found to decrease as the amount of the HMX surface coated with wax increased. This thus indicates that the shock sensitivity depends on the surface area of the reactive expl exposed to reaction products. Similar results were observed 20 years earlier and reported in Ref 26. The following is a quote from this Ref, It was noted in the course of this work that the quantity of inert material per se was not the important factor in the phenomenon of desensitization. As a matter of fact, it was the thoroughness with which the explosive crystals (PETN) were coated that appeared to be an important factor in desensitization. Table 6 contains the results of the impact sensitivity tests conducted on PETN-wax mixts where both the quantity of wax in the mix and the degree of coating on the expl crystal are taken into account... 

Zinc Nitrate. See in Vol 8, N40-L and the following Addnl Refs 1) G.W. Batchelder G.A. Zimmerman, Smokeless Propellant Compositions Containing a Polyester Resin , USP 3653993 (1972) CA 79,77449 (1973) [The inventors claim that Zn nitrate acts as the burning rate catalyst in their propint formulation. Thus, the addn of 0.1% Zn nitrate to a propint contg AN (45), amm dichromate (5%), a polyester, styrene, methacrylate and lecithin increased this parameter from 0.07 to 0.11 indies/ sec] 2) Anon, Fire Protection. . . 7th Edition , NFPA, Boston (1979), 491M-445 [This source reports that Zn nitrate will expld if sprinkled on hot C. Also, that heat, shock and friction sensitive expls are formed when the nitrate is intimately mixed with the following finely divided materials Cu, metal sulfides, organic matter, P and S]... 

E. J.Russell, USP 2821466(1958) CA 52, 6795(1958) [Water-resistant semigel blasting expl AN 72, NaNOg 3.5, NS 20, l,l,l-Tris(hydroxy-methyl) ethane Trinitrate 1, carbonaceous matter 3 chalk 0.5%]... 

Pearcy(Ref 1) used borax, together with NaCl(or KC1) and KN03, as an additive to NG-NC expls to render them safe against fire damp. Carbonaceous matter was avoided as far as possible in such expls. One expl compn contd NG 42.5, NC 2.5, KN03 20, borax 20 NaCl 15%... 

It should be noted that brisance is a very complicated phenomenon and that none of the existing methods of calcn, such as by Kast s formula(see above), Herlin s formuIa(Refs la 12), BichePs formula, Friederich s formuIa(Ref 10a), etc or of experimental determinations gives exact interpretation of B. The matter of detg it is complicated by the fact that the B of a cartridge of expl is different in different directions if a cylindrical cartridge is detonated from one end, the action in the direction in which deton proceeds is considerably greater than that in the opposite direction... 

Charcoal, A black amorphous substance a form of carbon derived from the incomplete combustion of animal or vegetable matter (Ref 2). When a pure form of charcoal is desired, it is derived from sugar. Its method of prepn by calcination of sugar heated to ca 800° is described in Ref 3 This method is considered superior to the treatment of sugar with coned HjSO. Toxicity, fire Sc expl hazards of charcoal are discussed in Ref.4 Charcoal is used in various chem processes, as a decolorizing Sc filtering medium, as absorbent, in pharmaceutical prepns Sc plastics and as a component of propellants, BkPdr, pyrotechnics Sc of other expls(Refs 1 5). Charcoals used by the US Armed Forces must comply with die applicable specifications (Ref 6)... 

Chlorates mixed with combustible materials may form expl compns. For example, an expln can occur if a chlorate is mixed with org matter, charcoal or sulfur and the mixt is struck with a hammer or heated. In the expl industry, chlorates are used as oxidg agents in combination with MF, phosphorus, antimony sulfide other combustible substances for primer cap compns. They are also used in pyrotechnic compns for flares aerial bombs, and as a component of permissible expls. Chlorates, as well as perchlorates, are used extensively in the manuf of Cheddites(qv)... 

Chlorites do not explode on impact if the metal surfaces are carefull y cleaned and org matter is not present the film of oxide normally occurringona hammer is sometimes sufficient to cause d eton. In other respects chlorites should be handled with the same precautions reqd for hypochlorites or chlorates(qv). A chlorite soln should be removed from any surface at once by thorough washing and should not be allowed to dry on a fabric as this combination is very flammable. Also strong acids should not come in contact with chlorites as the chlorine dioxide(qv) evolved is very expl. In addn, strong chlorite solns react violently with sulfur so that a rubber stopper should not be used in a bottle contg chlorite solns(Ref 7)... 

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