Evening star., 1939-04-03
New High Explosives
From Natural Gas
Are Announced
Discovery Gives U. S.
Big Supply and
Cheaper War Product
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
BALTIMORE, April 3.-Two new
high explosives made out of air
steam and natural gas were an
nounced here as the American
Chemical Society opened its annual
convention today.
They are similar in structure and
explosive power to nitroglycerol, the
base of dynamites. With absolutely
unlimited supplies of their con-
stituents, the new materials give
the United States an assured source
of powerful explosives in war and
fix limit on the price of those used
In industrial blasting operations.
The announcement was made by
DR.. Henry B. Hass, chemistry pro-
fessor at Purdue University, who
will present his scientific findings
at the meetings of the American
Chemical Society here this week.
Present Supply Uncertain.
The present basis Of most high
explosives for both military and in
dustrial operations is glycerol, a
colorless, odorless higher alcohol
which is produced as a by-product
OF the soap industry. It Is available
in limited, although large, amounts,
DR.. Hass explained, and its price
goes up and down with the fluctu-
ations of the soap business and the
demand for explosives. During the
World War, when the need was
greatest, it shot up to 81 a pound
and now has fallen back to IS cents.
In recent years it has been in con-
siderable demand for the manu-
facture of synthetic resins, for use
in cigarettes to retain moisture in
the tobacco, and as basic con-
stituent of cellophane. The supply
might run short at the very time
when it was most needed
"An Insignificant fraction of the
natural gas resources of the United
States" Prof. Hass said today, lis
capable of furnishing all the high
explosives which could ever be used.
This country has SO per cent of the
worlds supply. The supply of new
explosives is limited only by de-
mand."
Natural gas is more than 80 per
cent methane, a combination of car
bon and hydrogen, the explosive, poi
sonous gas which seeps out of
marshes and makes up the atmo-
sphere of some of the larger planets.
The basis of the new process is to
bring about a combination of this
methane and nitrogen by means of
what DR.. Hass calls "vapor phase
nitration," process which was dis
covered in the Purdue laboratory
last summer after chemists for a
generation had declared it impos-
sible. Nitric acid is the usual vehicle
of nitrogen in the liquid form. the
only form in which it could be made
to enter many chemical combina-
tions In the past. When heated to
the vaporization point it has always
disintegrated very rapidly.
Determined by Split Second.
The Purdue chemists found that
there was a split second during the
boiling when the vaporized nitrogen
reacted with other vapor with light
ming like rapidity. The secret of the
new explosives is taking advantage
of this split second. They also found
that nitrogen during this instant
that 1t remained in the vapor phase
was far less inert than ordinarily
and it was possible to form combina-
tions with many chemicals for the
first time. This may eventually open
up ways to discoveries far more i'm
portant even than the new explo-
sives.
Once the combination of nitrogen
and methane, or with ethane, the
closely related gas with which the
process was first discovered, is
achieved it is necessary to con-
dense it by means of formaldyhyde.
The formaldahyde used in the re-
actions is derived from synthetic
methanol made out Of carbon mo-
noxide and hydrogen produced by
the action of steam upon natural
gas. The nitric acid comes from
ammonia which is made from air
and hydrogen. Both the ethane
and methane are present in large
amounts in the natural gas itself.
The two new explosives are called
nibglycerol trinitrate and nibglyce-
rol denitrate.
New Industry Visioned.
The indications are, Prof. Hass
said today. that several new indus
tries may be built up on this nitra-
ton process. Besides methane and
ethane, he has found, the heavier
oils also combine with nitrogen va
por. Some of the amino acids, the
nitrogen-containing units of the
proteins of which the animal body
is made up, can be synthesized in
this way. Besides the two SUBJ
stances, nitromethane and nitroe-
thane can be used for solvent ex-
traction of fractions of petroleum
and as solvents for cellulose acetate
and gun cotton, and in the synthesis
of insecticides and rubber acelera-
tors.
Chemists of America today
marked with a memorial the spot