Royal Dutch explosive

RDX (cyclotiimethylenetrinitramine), royal demolition explosive, hexogen, or cyclonite (also called royal Dutch explosive)... 

As noted, RDX (cyclonite) also called royal Dutch explosive or royal demolition explosive, was developed in 1898 by Henning, a German chemist. His method was to nitrate hexamthylene tetramine using concentrated nitric acid. Hexamthylene tetramine appears on the list of chemicals purchased in bulk by the Chemical Warfare Service. A nitrating shed appears on the 1918 building plat map. This structure is far removed from the AUES campus, probably due to the danger inherent in making explosives. Report Nos. DR 03-065 and DR 03-046 indicate the AUES experiments with RDX precursors. 

Many of the explosives compounds from decades ago are still present in the soil and groundwater. As of 1997, the Army noted over 80 sites with groundwater contaminated with explosive wastes. Dinifrotoluene (DNT), trinitrotoluene (TNT), high melting explosive (HMX), and royal Dutch (or demolition) explosive (RDX) are typical examples. Breakdown products and isomers from the list in Section 4.2.3 are also found. 

In the course of 1915, it became increasingly clear to the Dutch military that modern warfare, as illustrated by the trenches in Belgium and France, demanded huge amounts of high explosives. Unfortunately, Dutch companies had no experience whatsoever with the production of these modern war-chemicals. It was in these circumstances, that the Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch/Shell entered the scene - a company which, to the great surprise of anyone but insiders, was already occupied with the chemical technology of dyestuffs and explosives. 

The activities of Shell took place both in neutral Holland, and in Britain and, to a smaller extent, in Germany, from 1906. Then, a year before their merger, both the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell began research and development on so-called aromatic intermediates (i.e., simple chemicals which can be converted into more complex substances, such as explosives and dyes) from petroleum. Three years later, a production unit for nitrobenzene and nitrotoluene(s) came into operation at a site near Diisseldorf, Germany. During the war, research in the Netherlands intensified and extended to the conversion of nitrocompounds into dyestuffs and explosives. TNT factories were erected in Britain and The Netherlands, and serious attempts were made to establish a synthetic dye business. After the war, however, work on these aromatic chemicals appeared to be of no commercial value, and in 1919, Shell s board of directors stopped research and production in these fields. Therefore, at first glance, it seems that these war time activities were without significance for the future of the company. 

In the literature on Royal Dutch/Shell, and on the petrochemical industry in general, little attention has been paid to the fact that between 1906 and 1919, this oil company was actively engaged in research on, and production of, aromatic intermediates, explosives and synthetic dyes. Most authors emphasize that the Anglo-Dutch oil company entered the world of petrochemicals only in 1927, as a result of an alliance between the powerful German IG Farben trust and Shell s most important competitor. Standard Oil." ... 

After extensive negotiations with German dye producers and with the explosives manufacturer Allendorf at Schonebeck a/d Elbe, Royal Dutch/Shell decided in June 1910 to sell their total production of MNT to the German Anilin Syndikat , from which it could get nitric acid in return on favourable conditions. This aniline cartel included the major German producers of synthetic dyes, as well as a few smaller firms. 

There was no experience in Britain of the production of TNT from toluol petroT. Accordingly, De Kok, head of the Royal Dutch research laboratory and just back from France, went to Britain to assist in the manufacture of TNT from Borneo oil. In London, he joined the American explosives expert Kenneth B. Quinan (1878-1948), who had been brought from South Africa to begin TNT production. De Kok erected a MNT plant at Oldbury, on the basis of experience that Royal Dutch had gained in the Reisholz nitration plant. Whereas the Reisholz factory never produced more than 100 metric tons MTN a week, the Oldbury plant was designed for 450 tons a week. In a second plant, built according to a comparable design at Sandycroft by De Kok and his Dutch assistant V. Henny, an even more remarkable 700 tons a week were produced. ... 

In parallel with its activities in explosives. Royal Dutch/Shell also directed its attention to synthetic dyes. For this, there were two reasons. In Britain, there was lively public debate on the need for a large national dyestuffs industry that would make the country self-reliant, and the possibility that British firms would be able to compete with the powerful German dye industry after the war. Robert Waley Cohen, as a member of the Shell board, was strongly attracted by this view, and thought that Royal Dutch/Shell could play an important role on the basis of its Borneo feedstock. In Holland, on the other hand, it was not the feedstock which played a primary role, but the excellent financial position of Royal Dutch, as well as its superior scientific and technical abilities. During the war, there was a shortage of dyes in Holland, and several small companies that wanted to start their own... 

The author would like to thank Ashgate Publishers for granting permission to reproduce parts of this chapter from the authors work Explosives from Oil The Transformation of Royal Dutch/Shell during World War I from Oil to Petrochemical Company (pp. 385 07), in Brenda J. Buchanan (ed.). Gunpowder, Explosives and the State A Technological History... 

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