The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

352 T)\ NAMITE AND OTHER HIGH EXPLOSIVES
In Europe the tendency is to use a smaller amount of nitroglycerin,
say 4 to 67», or, a> in the Favier explosives, to omit it
altogether Ammonium nitrate permissible explosives which contain
nitroglycenn may be divided broadly into two principal
classes, those of low ammonium nitrate content in which the
oxygen is balanced rather accurately against the carbonaceous
material and which are cooled by the inclusion of salts, and those
which have a high ammonium nitrate content but whose temperature
of explosion is low because of an incomplete utilization
of the oxygen by a relatively small amount of carbonaceous
material Explosives of the latter class are more popular m England
and in Germany. Several examples of commercial explosives
of each sort are listed m the following table.
Ammonium nitrate
Potassium nitrate
Sodium nitrate
Barium nitrate
Na or K chloride
Hvdrated ammonium
ovalate
Ammonium chloride
Cereal or wood meal
Glycerin
Powdered coal
Nitrotoluene
Dinitrotoluene
Trinitrotoluene
Nitroglycenn
I
52 0
210
16 0
60
. . .
50
II
530
12 0
19 0
4.0
60
50
III
600
50
210
40
60
40
IV
610
30
20 5
7.5
3.0
10
40
V
66 0
220
20
40
.
4.0
VI
73 0
28
15 0
10
50
3.2
VII
78 0
50
80
50
40
VIII
830
70
The Carbomtes which are permissible are straight dynamites
whose temperatures of explosion are lowered by the excess of
carbon which they contain. As a class they merge, through the
Ammon-Carbonites, with the class of ammonium nitrate explosives.
The Carbonites, have the disadvantage that they produce
gases which contain carbon monoxide, and for that reason have
largely given way for use m coal mines to ammonium nitrate
permissibles which contain an excess of oxygen. Naoum 28 reports
the compositions and explosive characteristics of four German
Carbonites as follows.
28 Op at, p 401.
20
t ,
t t
20
20
40