Picric acid-filled shells

Two wars at the turn of the century also saw limited use of chemical weapons. During the Boer War, British troops fired picric acid-filled shells, although to little effect.8 During the Russo-Japanese War, which was closely observed by those who would plan World War I, Japanese soldiers threw arsenal rag torches into Russian trenches.3... 

The Germans thought so, as they started using TNT as their standard explosive for their armed forces in 1902, while the British stuck with picric acid. Picric acid is actually a stronger explosive, but because it is more shock-sensitive, picric-acid-filled shells don t penetrate armor so well, as they tend to explode on contact. Partly as a result of this, the Royal Navy suffered greater losses than the German Navy at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. 

It is prepared by the direct nitration of toluene with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. TNT is a very stable, violent and powerful high explosive, but less sensitive to shock and friction than picric acid. It is widely used as a filling for shells, bombs, etc. often mixed with ammonium nitrate and other high explosives. The lower grades of TNT may contain isomers which under hot storage conditions may give rise to exudation. 

Turpin (1848-1927) of detonating properties of PA (Picric Acid), was followed by its adoption for filling HE shell of his design (See next item) Note Accdg to Marshall (Ref 11, p 44), H. Sprengel was the first to draw attention to the fact that PA by itself could be initiated by a powerful detonator and was a very powerful expl, but no practical use was made of his discovery (See year 1873)... 

Turpin s Explosive, described by Colver (AddnlRef B) was patented in 1885 for filling HE shells. It vas prepd by mixing powdered PA with small amounts of collodion cotton, grease, or aqueous gum arabic and forming into blocks of the desired shape and size Note Accdg to Stettbachet (AddnlRef C, 15), Turpin disco verdd in 1885 that PA (Picric Acid) can easily be detonated by means of a MF cap and for this reason can serve as... 

Frantsuzskaya Sines . Rus for French Mixture, which consisted of PA (Picric Acid) 80 DNN (Dinitronaphthalene) 20%. It was used for filling some shells, aerial bombs, antitank mines and for demolition charges known as podryvnyiye shaski of the same size as those filled with Trotyl (TNT)... 

TNT mixtures with ammonium nitrate are more sensitive to impact than TNT itself. As shown by Hackel [49] (Table 49 and Fig. 70) mixtures containing 30-60% of ammonium nitrate are equally as sensitive as picric acid. Mixtures of this kind should not, therefore, be used for filling high initial velocity heavy calibre shells, e.g. armour-piercing shells. 

Designolle and Brugere suggested that picrate salts could be used as a propellant, while in 1871, Abel proposed the use of ammonium picrate as an explosive. In 1873, Sprengel showed that picric acid could be detonated to an explosion and Turpin, utilizing these results, replaced blackpowder with picric acid for the filling of munition shells. In Russia, Panpushko prepared picric acid in 1894 and soon realized its potential as an explosive. Eventually, picric acid (1,2) was accepted all over the world as the basic explosive for military uses. 

Picric acid was used in grenade and mine fillings and had a tendency to form impact-sensitive metal salts (picrates) with the metal walls of the shells. The filling of mines and grenades was also a hazardous process, since relatively high temperatures were needed to melt the picric acid. Some of the properties of picric acid are presented in Table 2.9. 

For a time compressed guncotton was used in Russia by the artillery (1876) [12] as a shell filling. From 1890 moist guncotton was adopted for this, purpose [12]. Guncotton continued to be used for a shell filling in some countries until it was replaced by the introduction of picric acid. 

Experiments with chlorodinitrobenzene in mixture with picric acid for filling shells have given no satisfactory results. 

On the whole the properties of trinitro-m-cresol are similar to those of picric acid. The properties of trinitrocresolates differ only slightly from those of picrates, as for example their lead salts. Ammonium trinitrocresolate has been used to some extent in Austria as a high explosive for filling shells. 

In France trinitroanisole was made use of only on file semi-commercial scale, in mixtures with picric acid or with ammonium or sodium nitrate for filling bombs. During World War II trinitroanisole was manufactured in Japan for tiling armour piercing shells. 

Various mixtures of explosives are used either to decrease cost or to obtain the explosive force desired. The most important of these is amatol which contains T.N.T. and ammonium nitrate the proportions used varied from 20-40 of the former to 80-60 of the latter. Tetr3d was used as the booster in shell filled with amatol. Cresylite is a mixture of 60 parts of picric acid and 40 parts of trinitrometacresol. 

Up to the start of World War I in 1914 picric acid, trinitrophenol, had been used as a high-explosive shell filling. It largely had replaced black powder and was termed melinite by the French and lyddite by the British. Trinitrophenol was a relatively easy batch-reaction nitration which had been carried out as a nonexplosive operation in the dyestuff manufacturing industry until a disastrous explosion took place in Manchester when a chemical factory caught fire. 

Abel proposed to use picric acid for filling shells. His Picric Powder consisted of 3 parts of saltpetre, and 2 of picrate of ammonia. Victorite consists of chlorate of potash, picric acid, and olive oil, and with occasionally some charcoal. It has the form of a coarse yellowish grey powder, and leaves an oily stain on paper, and it is very sensitive to friction and percussion. The composition is as follows --KC10 3 = 80 parts picric acid,... 

---