The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

256 NITRIC ESTERS
Material soluble in ether-alcohol, C 30.50%; H 2.91%; N 11.85%;
Material insoluble in ether-alcohol, C 24.15%; H 2.46%; N 13.83%.
He concluded that the different analytical results which had been
procured with different samples of guncotton resulted from the
samples containing different amounts of the ether-alcohol soluble
material, and judged that completely nitrated guncotton is the
trinitrate of cellulose, fC6H7O2(ONO2):s]n, as had been first suggested
by Crum, This substance contains theoretically 14.14%
nitrogen.
1868. E. A. Brown, assistant to Abel, discovered 91 that dry
Gompressed guncotton could be made to detonate very violently
by the explosion of a fulminate detonator such as Nobel had
already used for exploding nitroglycerin. Shortly afterwards he
made the further important discovery that wet guncotton could
be exploded by the explosion of a small quantity of dry guncotton
(the principle of the booster). This made it possible to
use large blocks of wet guncotton in naval mines with comparative
safety.
Nitrocellulose (NC)
Cellulose occurs everywhere in the vegetable kingdom; it is
wood fiber and cell wall, the structural material of all plants.
Cotton fiber is practically pure cellulose, but cellulose of equal
purity, satisfactory in all respects for the manufacture of explosives
and smokeless powder, may be produced from wood. Cellulose
and starch both yield glucose on hydrolysis, and the molecules
of both these substances are made up of anhydroglucose
units linked together.
»iBrit. Pat. 3115 (1868).