Improvements in the Manufacture of Explosives.
Year: 1898

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Explosives.
I, GUSTAV COUNT VON GELDERN-EGMOND, Imperial and Royal Field-Marshal-
Lieutenant, and President of the Imperial and Royal Technical Military Commis-
sion in Vienna, Austria, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:
The explosion of ammonium-nitrate explosives is the more complete the more
the combustible constituent has been comminuted and intimately mixed with the
oxygen-carrier.
It has been frequently observed more particularly in the case of safety explosives
for coal mines liable to fire-damp that with otherwise satisfactory proportions of
mixture, the safety against ignition of the fire damp is greater the smaller the
percentage of the carbon constituent of the ammonium-powder, which. it is
possible to employ.
But, hitherto, in manufacturing safety-explosives of this kind, the difficulty
of effecting an intimate and uniform distribution of these inactive constituents has
been an obstacle to the production of really useful products; said constituents
being of the greatest possible inactivity with the object of obtaining the very
greatest degree of safety in storing, transporting and handling explosives of this
kind.
It has been suggested to obviate this drawback by the addition of a certain
amount of an especially active oxygen carrier (such as chlorates, chromates, per-
manganates, etc.) but the practical carrying out of that suggestion entails
considerable difficulties, and a product of that kind loses, by reason of such addi-
tions, the properties which would render it safe for storage, transport and use.
The production of an intimate and homogeneous safety explosive mixture of
this kind would be easy to effect if it were possible to employ the carbon consti-
tuents in a state of extremely fine subdivision and chemically, opened or broken up.
In this connection numerous experiments with explosives containing ammonium
nitrate have shewn that suitably carbonised cellulose and hydro-cellulose (as also
cellulose or vegetable matters generally which are produced by the natural rotting
and carbonising process such as occurs with the first mentioned result in the retting
of flax, and with both results in the formation of peat, lignite, and the decay of
foliage) acquires the property of being capable of being ground up in the dry or
in the wet state into an extremely fine meal. For this reason, and also in virtue
of the particular degree of openness which is imparted to the cellulose, both
chemically and mechanically, by these processes, it would appear that cellulose
which has been preliminarily treated or prepared in that manner, is specially
adapted to become oxidized with extreme ease, rapidity and completeness with
ammonium-nitrate either alone or with the addition of other nitrates (such as nitre
or saltpetre) or other oxygen-carriers, when the admixture has been effected with
a suitable degree of completeness, and provided that a suitable mode of ignition
has been selected. This cellulose therefore renders it possible to produce safety
explosives which are of very great practical use, extremely safe in storage, trans-

page_text: port and
use, and are distinguished by numerous advantages over other
ammonium blasting preparations.
It will of course be understood that the proportions of the mixture of the
constituents of the explosive with the carbonised cellulose or hydro-cellulose may
vary within wide limits, and, for the purpose of giving at least some approximate
data, it may be here stated that 99 to 50 parts of ammonium-nitrate alone, or
ammonium-nitrate mixed with from 05 to 50 per cent. of other nitrates (such as
nitre or saltpetre) or other oxygen-carriers, may be mixed with from 1 to 50 parts
of carbonised or rotted cellulose or hydro-cellulose.
Having now paticularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
The herein described improvement in the manufacture of explosives which con-
sists in intimately mixing artificially or naturally carbonised (rotted or decayed)
cellulose or hydro-cellulose (such as wood, wood-mical or wood-flour, decayed wood,
leaves, broken flax, or other vegetable fibrous material) or vegetable matters which
occur in a carbonised state in nature (such as peat in all its varieties, lignite,
wholly or partially decayed leaves) with ammonium-nitrate either alone or with
the addition of other nitrates (such as nitre or saltpetre) or other carriers of
oxygen as specified.
Dated this 3rd day of December 1898.
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
Chartered Patent Agents, 53, Chancery Lane, London.