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-
- Demolition Article #1
- By: King Arthur
-
-
-
- Like all chemists I must advise you all to take the greatest care
- and caution when you are doing this. Even if you have made this stuff
- before.
-
- This first article will give you information on making
- nitroglyerin, the basic ingredient in a lot of explosives such as
- straight dynamites, and geletin dynamites.
-
-
-
- Making nitroglycerin
-
- 1. Fill a 75-milliliter beaker to the 13 ml. Level with fuming
- red nitric acid, of 98% pure concentration.
-
- 2. Place the beaker in an ice bath and allow to cool below room temp.
-
- 3. After it has cooled, add to it three times the amount of
- fuming sulferic acid (99% h2so4). In other words, add to the
- now-cool fuming nitric acid 39 ml. Of fuming sulferic acid.
- When mixing any acids, always do it slowly and carefully to
- avoid splattering.
-
- 4. When the two are mixed, lower thier temp. By adding more ice
- to the bath, about 10-15 degrees centigrade. (Use a
- mercury-operated thermometer)
-
- 5. When the acid solution has cooled to the desired temperature,
- it is ready for the glycerin. The glycerin must be added in
- small amounts using a medicine dropper. (Read this step about
- 10 times!) Glycerin is added slowly and carefully (i mean
- careful!) Until the entire surface of the acid it covered with
- it.
-
- 6. This is a dangerous point since the nitration will take place
- as soon as the glycerin is added. The nitration will produce
- heat, so the solution must be kept below 30 degrees
- centigrade! If the solution should go above 30 degrees,
- immediately dump the solution into the ice bath! This will
- insure that it does not go off in your face!
-
- 7. For hte first ten minutes of nitration, the mixture should be
- gently stirred. In a normal reaction the nitroglycerin will
- formas a layer on top of the acid solution, while the sulferic
- acid will absorb the excess water.
-
- 8. After the nitration has taken place, and the nitroglycerin has
- formed on the top of the solution, the entire beaker should be
- transferred slowly and carefully to another beaker of water.
- When this is done the nitroglycerin will settle at the bottem
- so the other acids can be drained away.
-
- 9. After removing as much acid as posible without disturbing the
- nitroglycerin, remove the nitroglycerin with an eyedropper and
- place it in a bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate in case
- you didn't know) solution. The sodium is an alkalai and will
- nuetralize much of the acid remaining. This process should be
- repeated as much as necesarry using blue litmus paper to check
- for the presence of acid. The remaining acid only makes the
- nitroglycerin more unstable than it already is.
-
- 10. Finally! The final step is to remove the nitroglycerin from
- the bicarbonate. His is done with and eye- dropper, slowly
- and carefully. The usual test to see if nitration has been
- successful is to place one drop of the nitroglycerin on metal
- and ignite it. If it is true nitroglycerin it will burn with
- a clear blue flame.
-
- ** Caution **
- nitro is very sensative to decomposition, heating dropping, or
- jarring, and may explode if left undisturbed and cool.