The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

402 PRIMARY EXPLOSIVES, DETONATORS, AND PRIMERS
around the stopper, contains fulminating silver. Explosions are
reported to have been caused by the careless turning of the glass
stopper of a bottle containing this reagent. After a test (for aldehyde,
for example) has been made with ammoniacal silver nitrate
solution, the liquid ought promptly to be washed down the sink,
and all insoluble matter left in the vessel ought to be dissolved
out with dilute nitric acid.
Fulminating platinum was first prepared by E. Davy, about
1825, by adding ammonia water to a solution of platinum sulfate,
boiling the precipitate with a solution of potash, washing, and
allowing to dry. It was exploded by heat, but not easily by percussion
or friction.
Fourcroy prepared a fulminating mercury by digesting red
oxide of mercury in ammonia water for 8 or 10 days. The material
became white and finally assumed the form of crystalline
scales. The dried product exploded loudly from fire, but underwent
a spontaneous decomposition when left to itself. At slightly
elevated temperatures it gave off ammonia and left a residue of
mercury oxide.
In the Journal de physique for 1779 the apothecary, Bayen,
described a fulminating mercurial preparation of another kind.
Thirty parts of precipitated, yellow oxide of mercury, washed
and dried, was mixed with 4 or 5 parts of sulfur; the mixture
exploded with violence when struck with a heavy hammer or
when heated on an iron plate. Other mixtures which react explosively
when initiated by percussion have been studied more
recently, 2 metallic sodium or potassium in contact with the oxide
or the chloride of silver or of mercury or in contact with chloroform
or carbon tetrachloride.
The explosion of chloroform in contact with an alkali metal may be
demonstrated by means of the apparatus illustrated in Figure 92.
About 0.3 gram of sodium or of potassium or of the liquid alloy of the
two is introduced into a thin-wall glass tube, or, better yet, is sealed
up in a small glass bulb, 6 to 8 mm. in diameter, which has a capillary
15 to 20 mm. in length. The tube or bulb containing the alkali metal
is placed in the bottom of a narrow test tube into which 1 or 2 cc. of
chloroform has already been introduced, and the apparatus is then
2 Staudinger, Z. Elektrochem., 31, 549 (1925); Davis and McLean, /. Am.
Chem. Soc, 60, 720 (1938).