Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise Part 5

nitrogen.

Ennea-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{31}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{9} = 11.98 per cent.

nitrogen.

Octo-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{32}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{8} = 11.13 per cent.

nitrogen. (= old di-nitro-cellulose) Hepta-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{33}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{7} = 10.19 per cent.

nitrogen.

Hexa-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{34}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{6} = 9.17 per cent.

nitrogen.

Penta-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{35}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{5} = 8.04 per cent.

nitrogen.

Tetra-nitro-cellulose C_{24}H_{36}O_{20}(NO_{2})_{4} = 6.77 per cent.

nitrogen. (= old mono-nitro-cellulose)

It is not unlikely that a long series of nitrates exists. It is at any rate certain that whatever strength of acids may be used, and whatever temperature or other conditions may be present during the nitration, that the product formed always consists of a mixture of the soluble and insoluble nitro-cellulose.

Theoretically 100 parts of cotton by weight should produce 218.4 parts of gun-cotton, but in practice the yield is a good deal less, both in the case of gun-cotton or collodion-cotton. In speaking of soluble and insoluble nitro-cellulose, it is their behaviour, when treated with a solution consisting of 2 parts ether and 1 of alcohol, that is referred to. There is, however, another very important difference, and that is their different solubility in nitro-glycerine. The lower nitrates or soluble form is soluble in nitro-glycerine under the influence of heat, a temperature of about 50 C. being required. At lower temperatures the dissolution is very imperfect indeed; and after the materials have been left in contact for days, the threads of the cotton can still be distinguished. The insoluble form or gun-cotton is entirely _insoluble_ in nitro-glycerine. It can, however, be made to dissolve[A] by the aid of acetone or acetic ether. Both or rather all the forms of nitro-cellulose can be dissolved in acetone or acetic ether. They also dissolve in concentrated sulphuric acid, and the penta-nitrate in nitric acid at about 80 or 90 C.

[Footnote A: Or rather to form a transparent jelly.]

The penta-nitrate may be obtained in a pure state by the following process, devised by Eder:--The gun-cotton is dissolved in concentrated nitric acid at 90 C., and reprecipitated by the addition of concentrated sulphuric acid. After cooling to 0 C., and mixing with a larger volume of water, the precipitated nitrate is washed with water, then with alcohol, dissolved in ether-alcohol, and again precipitated with water, when it is obtained pure. This nitrate is soluble in ether-alcohol, and slightly in acetic acid, easily in acetone, acetic ether, and methyl-alcohol, insoluble in alcohol. Strong potash (KOH) solution converts into the di-nitrate C_{12}H_{18}O_{8}(NO_{3})_{2}. The hexa-nitrate is not soluble in acetic acid or methyl-alcohol.

The lower nitrates known as the tetra- and tri-nitrates are formed together when cellulose is treated with a mixture of weak acids, and allowed to remain in contact with them for a very short time (twenty minutes). They cannot be separated from one another, as they all dissolve equally in ether-alcohol, acetic ether, acetic acid, methyl-alcohol, acetone, amyl acetate, &c.

As far as the manufacture of explosive bodies is concerned, the two forms of nitro-cellulose used and manufactured are gun-cotton or the hexa- nitrate (once regarded as tri-nitro-cellulose), which is also known as insoluble gun-cotton, and the soluble form of gun-cotton, which is also known as collodion, and consists of a mixture of several of the lower nitrates. It is probable that it chiefly consists, however, of the next highest nitrate to gun-cotton, as the theoretical percentage of nitrogen for this body,. the penta-nitrate, is 12.75 per cent., and a.n.a.lyses of commercial collodion-cotton, entirely soluble in ether-alcohol, often give as high a percentage as 12.6.

We shall only describe the manufacture of the two forms known as soluble and insoluble, and shall refer to them under their better known names of gun-cotton and collodion-cotton. The following would, however, be the formulae[A] and percentage of nitrogen of the complete series:--

Hexa-nitro-cellulose C_{12}H_{14}O_{4}(NO_{3})_{6} 14.14 per cent.

nitrogen.

Penta-nitro-cellulose C_{12}H_{15}O_{5}(NO_{3})_{5} 12.75 per cent.

nitrogen.

Tetra-nitro-cellulose C_{12}H_{16}O_{6}(NO_{3})_{4} 11.11 per cent.

nitrogen.

Tri-nitro-cellulose C_{12}H_{17}O_{7}(NO_{3})_{3} 9.13 per cent.

nitrogen.

Di-nitro-cellulose C_{12}H_{18}O_{8}(NO_{3})_{2} 7.65 per cent.

nitrogen.

Mono-nitrocellulose C_{12}H_{19}O_{9}(NO_{3}) 3.80 per cent.

nitrogen.

[Footnote A: Berthelot takes C_{24}H_{40}O_{20} as the formula of cellulose; and M. Vieille regards the highest nitrate as (C_{24}H_{18}(NO_{3}H)_{11}O_{9}). _Compt. Rend._, 1882, p. 132.]

~Properties of Gun-Cotton.~--The absolute density of gun-cotton is 1.5.

When in lumps its apparent density is 0.1; if twisted into thread, 0.25; when subjected, in the form of pulp, to hydraulic pressure, 1.0 to 1.4.

Gun-cotton preserves the appearance of the cotton from which it is made.

It is, however, harsher to the touch; it is only slightly hygroscopic (dry gun-cotton absorbs 2 per cent. of moisture from the air). It possesses the property of becoming electrified by friction. It is soluble in acetic ether, amyl acetate, and acetone, insoluble in water, alcohol, ether, ether-alcohol, methyl-alcohol, &c. It is very explosive, and is ignited by contact with an ignited body, or by shock, or when it is raised to a temperature of 172 C. It burns with a yellowish flame, almost without smoke, and leaves little or no residue. The volume of the gases formed is large, and consists of carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, nitrogen, and water gas. Compressed gun-cotton when ignited often explodes when previously heated to 100 C.

Gun-cotton kept at 80 to 100 C. decomposes slowly, and sunlight causes it to undergo a slow decomposition. It can, however, be preserved for years without undergoing any alteration. It is very susceptible to explosions by influence. For instance, a torpedo, even placed at a long distance, may explode a line of torpedoes charged with gun-cotton. The velocity of the propagation of the explosion in metallic tubes filled with pulverised gun-cotton has been found to be from 5,000 to 6,000 mms. per second in tin tubes, and 4,000 in leaden tubes (Sebert).

Gun-cotton loosely exposed in the open air burns eight times as quickly as powder (Piobert). A thin disc of gun-cotton may be fired into from a rifle without explosion; but if the thickness of the disc be increased, an explosion may occur. The effect of gun-cotton in mines is very nearly the same as that of dynamite for equal weights. It requires, however, a stronger detonator, and it gives rise to a larger quant.i.ty of carbonic oxide gas. Gun-cotton should be neutral to litmus, and should stand the Government heat test--temperature of 150 F. for fifteen minutes (see page 249). In the French Navy gun-cotton is submitted to a heat test of 65 C.

(= 149 F.) for eleven minutes. It should contain as small a percentage of soluble nitro-cotton and of non-nitrated cotton as possible.

The products of perfectly detonated gun-cotton may be expressed by the following equation:--

2C_{12}H_{14}O_{4}(NO_{3})_{6} = 18CO + 6CO_{2} + 14H_{2}O + 12N.

It does not therefore contain sufficient oxygen for the complete combustion of its carbon. It is for this reason that when used for mining purposes a nitrate is generally added to supply this defect (as, for instance, in tonite). It tends also to prevent the evolution of the poisonous gas, carbonic oxide. The success of the various gelatine explosives is due to this fact, viz., that the nitro-glycerine has an excess of oxygen, and the nitro-cotton too little, and thus the two explosives help one another.

In practice the gases resulting from the explosion of gun-cotton are-- Carbonic oxide, 28.55; carbonic acid, 19.11; marsh gas (CH_{4}), 11.17; nitric oxide, 8.83; nitrogen, 8.56; water vapour, 21.93 per cent. The late Mr E.O. Brown, of Woolwich a.r.s.enal, discovered that perfectly wet and uninflammable compressed gun-cotton could be easily detonated by the detonation of a priming charge of the dry material in contact with it.

This rendered the use of gun-cotton very much safer for use as a military or mining explosive.

As a mining explosive, however, gun-cotton is now chiefly used under the form of tonite, which is a mixture of half gun-cotton and half barium nitrate. This material is sometimes spoken of as "nitrated gun-cotton."

The weight of gun-cotton required to produce an equal effect either in heavy ordnance or in small arms is to the weight of gunpowder in the proportion of 1 to 3, i.e., an equal weight of gun-cotton would produce three times the effect of gunpowder. Its rapidity of combustion, however, requires to be modified for use in firearms. Hence the lower nitrates are generally used, or such compounds as nitro-lignose, nitrated wood, &c., are used.

The initial pressure produced by the explosion of gun-cotton is very large, equal to 18,135 atmospheres, and 8,740 kilogrammes per square centimetre for 1 kilo., the heat liberated being 1,075 calories (water liquid), or 997.7 cals. (water gaseous), but the quant.i.ty of heat liberated changes with the equation of decomposition. According to Berthelot,[A] the heat of formation of collodion-cotton is 696 cals. for 1,053 grms., or 661 cals. for 1 kilo. The heat liberated in the total combustion of gun-cotton by free oxygen at constant pressure is 2,633 cals. for 1,143 grms., or for 1 kilo. gun-cotton 2,302 cals. (water liquid), or 2,177 cals. (water gaseous). The heat of decomposition of gun- cotton in a closed vessel, found by experiment at a low density of charge (0.023), amounts to 1,071 cals. for 1 kilo. of the substance, dry and free from ash. To obtain the maximum effect of gun-cotton it must be used in a compressed state, for the initial pressures are thereby increased. Wet gun-cotton s much less sensitive to shock than dry. Paraffin also reduces its liability to explode, so also does camphor.

[Footnote A: "Explosives and their Power," trans. by Hake and M'Nab.]

The substance known as celluloid, a variety of nitro-cellulose nearly corresponding to the formula C_{24}H_{24}(NO_{3}H)_{8}O_{12}, to which camphor and various inert substances are added, so as to render it non-sensitive to shock, may be worked with tools, and turned in the lathe in the same manner as ivory, instead of which material celluloid is now largely used for such articles as knife handles, combs, &c. Celluloid is very plastic when heated towards 150 C., and tends to become very sensitive to shock, and in large quant.i.ties might become explosive during a fire, owing to the general heating of the ma.s.s, and the consequent evaporation of the camphor. When kept in the air bath at 135 C., celluloid decomposes quickly. In an experiment (made by M. Berthelot) in a closed vessel at 135 C., and the density of the charge being 0.4, it ended in exploding, developing a pressure of 3,000 kilos. A large package of celluloid combs also exploded in the guard's van on one of the German railways a few years ago. Although it is not an explosive under ordinary circ.u.mstances, or even with a powerful detonator, considerable care should be exercised in its manufacture.

~The Manufacture of Gun-Cotton.~--The method used for the manufacture of gun-cotton is that of Abel (Spec. No. 1102, 20. 4. 65). It was worked out chiefly at Stowmarket[A] and Waltham Abbey,[B] but has in the course of time undergone several alterations. These modifications have taken place, however, chiefly upon the Continent, and relate more to the apparatus and machinery used than to any alteration in the process itself. The form of cellulose used is cotton-waste,[C] which consists of the clippings and waste material from cotton mills. After it has been cleaned and purified from grease, oil, and other fatty substances by treatment with alkaline solutions, it is carefully picked over, and every piece of coloured cotton rag or string carefully removed. The next operation to which it is submitted has for its object the opening up of the material. For this purpose it is put through a carding machine, and afterwards through a cutting machine, whereby it is reduced to a state suitable for its subsequent treatment with acids, that is, it has been cut into short lengths, and the fibres opened up and separated from one another.

[Footnote A: The New Explosive Co. Works.]

[Footnote B: Royal Gunpowder Factory.]

[Footnote C: Costs from 10 to 25 a ton. In his description of the "Preparation of Cotton-waste for the Manufacture of Smokeless Powder," A.

Hertzog states that the German military authorities require a cotton which when thrown into water sinks in two minutes; when nitrated, does not disintegrate; when treated with ether, yields only 0.9 per cent. of fat; and containing only traces of chlorine, lime, magnesia, iron, sulphuric acid, and phosphoric acid. If the cotton is very greasy, it must be first boiled with soda-lye under pressure, washed, bleached with chlorine, washed, treated with sulphuric acid or HCl, again washed, centrifugated, and dried; if very greasy indeed a preliminary treatment with lime-water is desirable. See also "Inspection of Cotton-Waste for Use in the Manufacture of Gun-cotton," by C.E. Munro, _Jour. Am. Chem. Soc._, 1895, 17, 783.]

~Drying the Cotton.~--This operation is performed in either of two ways.

The cotton may either be placed upon shelves in a drying house, through which a current of hot air circulates, or dried in steam-jacketed cylinders. It is very essential that the cotton should be as dry as possible before dipping in the acids, especially if a wholly "insoluble"

nitro-cellulose is to be obtained. After drying it should not contain more than 0.5 per cent. of moisture, and less than this if possible. The more general method of drying the cotton is in steam-jacketed tubes, i.e., double cylinders of iron, some 5 feet long and 1-1/2 foot wide. The cotton is placed in the central chamber (Fig. 10), while steam is made to circulate in the surrounding jacket, and keeps the whole cylinder at a high temperature (steam pipes may be coiled round the outside of an iron tube, and will answer equally well). By means of a pipe which communicates with a compressed air reservoir, a current of air enters at the bottom, and finds its way up through the cotton, and helps to remove the moisture that it contains. The raw cotton generally contains about 10 per cent. of moisture and should be dried until it contains only 1/2 per cent. or less.

For this it will generally have to remain in the drying cylinder for about five hours. At the end of that time a sample should be taken from the _top_ of the cylinder, and dried in the water oven (100 C.[A]) for an hour to an hour and a half, and re-weighed, and the moisture then remaining in it calculated.

[Footnote A: It is dried at 180 C. at Waltham Abbey, in a specially constructed drying chamber.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10.--COTTON DRIER.]

It is very convenient to have a large copper water oven, containing a lot of small separate compartments, large enough to hold about a handful of the cotton, and each compartment numbered, and corresponding to one of the drying cylinders. The whole apparatus should be fixed against the wall of the laboratory, and may be heated by bringing a small steam pipe from the boiler-house. It is useful to have a series of copper trays, about 3 inches by 6 inches, numbered to correspond to the divisions in the steam oven, and exactly fitting them. These trays can then be taken by a boy to the drying cylinders, and a handful of the cotton from each placed in them, and afterwards brought to the laboratory and weighed (a boy can do this very well), placed in their respective divisions of the oven, and left for one to one and a half hours, and re-weighed.

When the cotton is found to be dry the bottom of the drying cylinder is removed, and the cotton pushed out from the top by means of a piece of flat wood fixed on a broom-handle. It is then packed away in galvanised- iron air-tight cases, and is ready for the next operation. At some works the cotton is dried upon shelves in a drying house through which hot air circulates, the shelves being of canvas or of bra.s.s wire netting. The hot air must pa.s.s under the shelves and through the cotton, or the process will be a very slow one.

~Dipping and Steeping.~--The dry cotton has now to be nitrated. This is done by dipping it into a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. The acids used must be strong, that is, the nitric acid must be at least of a gravity of 1.53 to 1.52, and should contain as little nitric oxide as possible. The sulphuric acid must have a specific gravity of 1.84 at 15 C., and contain about 97 per cent. of the mono-hydrate (H_{2}SO_{4}). In fact, the strongest acids obtainable should be used when the product required is gun-cotton, i.e., the highest nitrate.

The sulphuric acid takes no part in the chemical reaction involved, but is necessary in order to combine with the water that is liberated in the reaction, and thus to maintain the strength of the nitric acid. The reaction which takes place is the following:--

2(C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}) + 6HNO_{3} = C_{12}H_{14}(NO_{3})_{6} + 6 H_{2}O.

324 378 = 594 108.

Cellulose. Gun-Cotton.