The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

MERCURY FULMINATE 405
cold anvil and struck with a cold hammer, a very stunning disagreeable
noise was produced and the faces of the hammer and
anvil were indented. A few grains floated in a tinfoil capsule on
hot oil exploded at 368°F. (186.7°C). When a mixture of fineand
coarse-grain black powder was placed on top of a quantity
of fulminate and the fulminate was fired, the black powder was
blown about but it was not ignited and was recovered unchanged.
Howard also attempted by means of alcohol to produce fulminating
compounds from gold, platinum, antimony, tin, copper, iron,
lead, nickel, bismuth, cobalt, arsenic, and manganese, but silver
was the only one of these metals with which he had any success.
Brugnatclli in 1802 worked out a satisfactory method for the
preparation of silver fulminate by pouring onto 100 grains of
powdered silver nitrate first an ounce of alcohol and then an
ounce of nitric acid. After the fulminate had precipitated, the
mixture was diluted with water to prevent it from dissolving
again and immediately filtered. Silver fulminate explodes more
easily from heat and from friction than mercury fulminate and
is more spectacular in its behavior. It quickly became an object
of amateur interest and public wonderment, one of the standard
exhibits of street fakirs and of mountebanks at fairs. Liebig, who
was born in 1803, saw a demonstration of silver fulminate in the
market place at Darmstadt when he was a boy. He watched the
process closely, recognized by its odor the alcohol which was
used, went hume, and succeeded in preparing the substance for
himself. He retained his interest in it, and in 1823 carried out
studies on the fulminates in the laboratory of Gay-Lussac at
Paris.
Mercury Fulminate
The commercial preparation of mercury fulminate is carried
out by a process which is essentially the same as that which
Howard originally recommended. Five hundred or 600 grams of
mercury is used for each batch, the operation is practically on
the laboratory scale, and several batches are run at the same
time. Since the reaction produces considerable frothing, capacious
glass balloons are used. The fumes, which are poisonous and
inflammable, are passed through condensers, and the condensate,
which contains alcohol, acetaldehyde, ethyl nitrate, and ethyl
nitrite, is utilized by mixing it with the alcohol for the next batch.