The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

J82 AROMATIC NITRO COMPOUNDS
tens, 96 van Romburgh, 90 and Davis and Allen 96 obtained methylpicramide.
When refluxed in xylene solution, tetryl gives off
nitrous fumes and is converted into a tarlike mass from which
picric acid and methylpicramidc may be isolated, along with a
third, unidentified, buff-colored finely crystalline substance which
melts at 240.5°. If pure tetryl is kept at 100°, it gives off nitrous
fumes and a small quantity of formaldehyde, and yields after 40
days a mass which remains semi-liquid at ordinary temperature.
By heating at 125° it is converted into a viscous liquid after
about the same number of hours.
At ordinary temperatures tetryl appears to be perfectly stable.
Current methods of purification insure the absence of occluded
acid. It is more powerful and more brisant than TNT and picric
acid, though distinctly more sensitive to shock, and is probably
the best of all the common explosives for use in boosters and
reinforced detonators. Koehler 97 reports pressures in the manometric
bomb (density of loading = 0.3) and temperatures produced
by the explosions, as follows:
PRESSURE: KILOS PER
SQUARE CENTIMETER TEMPERATURE, °C.
Tetryl 4684 2911
Picric acid 3638 2419
TNT 3749 2060
TNB 3925 2356
Aranaz 98 reports that the explosion of tetryl produces a temperature
of 3339°. Tetryl is slightly more sensitive than picric acid,
and considerably more sensitive than TNT, in the drop test. Experimenting
with a 5-kilogram weight, Koehler found that a
drop of 150 cm. caused the detonation of tetryl 10 times out of
10 trials, a drop of 100 cm. 9 times out of 10, of 50 cm. 5 times
out of 10, and of 40 cm. 3 times out of 10. Martin" has determined
the minimum charges of various primary explosives necessary
for the detonation of TNT and tetryl. The explosives were
loaded into detonator capsules, and the initiators were compressed
upon them at a pressure of 1100 kilos per square centimeter.
07 Cited by Desvergnes, loc. cit.
98 Aranaz, "Les nuevos explosives," Madrid, 1911, cited by Desvergnes.
99 Martin, "Ueber Azide und Fulminate," Darmstadt, 1913, cited by Giua,
op. cit., p. 320.