The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

276 NITRIC ESTERS
binder while the mixture was stirred in a rotary mixer. The
resulting granules were dried and screened, and yielded a freerunning
explosive which could be loaded easily by machine
Three United States patents 10T granted in 1916 to Bronstein
and Waller describe several nitrostarch blasting explosives, of
which the following table reports typical examples. In actual use,
IS itrostarch
Ammonium nitrate TNT
mixture
Sodium nitrate
Barium nitrate
Carbonaceous material
Paraffin oil
Sulfur
Calcium carbonate
30 0%
150
46.8
30
07
30
15
39 0% 30 0%' 40 0% 40 0%
200
3755
0 75
20
10
580
50
05
50
15
37 7
200
08
15
34 7
20 0
08
30
15
40 0
200
17 7
20 0
these explosives would also contain a small amount of some
stabilizer, say 0.2% of diphenylamme or of urea.
Utilization of Formaldehyde
At the time of the first World War the methyl alcohol which
was needed for the preparation of tetryl was procured from the
distillation of wood. It was expensive and limited in amount.
Formaldehyde was produced then, as it is now, by the oxidation
of methyl alcohol, and a demand for it was a demand upon the
wood-distillation industry. Formaldehyde was the raw material
from which methylamine was produced commercially, and the
resulting methylamine could be used for the preparation of tetryl
by the alternative method from dinitrochlorobenzene. It was also
the raw material from which certain useful explosives could be
prepared, but its high price and its origin in the wood-distillation
industry deprived the explosives in question of all but an academic
interest. With the commercial production of synthetic
methyl alcohol, the same explosives are now procurable from a
raw material which is available in an amount limited only by the
will of the manufacturers to produce it.
Carbon monoxide and hydrogen, heated under pressure in the
presence of a suitable catalyst, combine to form methyl alcohol
A mixture of zinc oxide and chromium oxide has been used as a
. S. Pats. 1,188,244, 1,188,245, 1,188,246 (1916).
08
15