The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

238 NITRIC ESTERS
Kast 66 has reported a velocity of detonation of 8260 meters
per second for nitromannite compressed to a density of 1.73 in a
column 12.8 mm. in diameter.
Nitromannite is about as sensitive as nitroglycerin to shock
and to friction. It detonates under a 4-cm. drop of a 2-kilogram
weight, and may be exploded readily on a concrete surface by a
blow of a carpenter's hammer. It is not fired by the spit of a
fuse, but is made to detonate by the flame of a match which
causes local overheating. It is almost, but not quite, a primary
explosive. It is used as the high-explosive charge in compound
detonators which contain the relatively safe diazodinitrophenol
as the primary explosive. A mixture of nitromannite and tetracene
is a powerful and brisant primary explosive which detonates
from moderate heat.
Nitrodulcite (Dulcitol hexanitrate)
Dulcite is obtained from Madagascar manna by extraction
with water and recrystallizing, large monoclinic prisms, m.p.
188°, less soluble than mannite. It may also be procured by the
action of sodium amalgam on aqueous solutions of lactose and
of d-galactose. Nitrodulcite, isomeric with nitromannite, crystallizes
from alcohol in needles which melt at 94-95°.
Nitrosorbite (Sorbitol hexanitrate)
d-Sorbite occurs in the berries of the mountain ash, but is more
readily procured by the electrolytic reduction of d-glucose. It
crystallizes with one molecule of water in small crystals which
lose their water when heated and melt at about 110°. Nitrosorbite,
isomeric with nitromannite, exists as a viscous liquid and
has never been obtained in the crystalline state. It is used in nonfreezing
dynamites.
Nitrated Sugar Mixtures
The sugars are polyhydric alcohols which contain an aldehyde
or a ketone group or a cyclic acetal or ketal arrangement within
the molecule. They yield nitric esters which are perhaps less
stable than the nitric esters of the simple polyhydric alcohols but
which probably owe part of their reputation for instability to the
« 6 Z. angew. Chem., 36, 74 (1923).