Method of Manufacturing Explosives for Blasting Purposes and for Use as Ammunition.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Dec., 1895-Accepted, 15th Feb., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Method of Manufacturing Explosives for Blasting Purposes and for
Use as Ammunition.
I, RUDOLF WEYEL, of Dömitz-on-the-Elbe, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklen-
bourg, German Empire, Chemist 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 manufacture and use of nitroglycerine and of the explosives composed of
same has many drawbacks and carries with it many dangers which are avoided by
my invention.
The main point of the latter is that by means of an addition of creosote aud
other alkylated i.e. methylated, ethylated, etc. derivatives of the benzol and phenol
class, the nitroglycerine is given new excellent qualities. A small addition of these
bodies lowers the freezing-point of the nitroglycerine about 20° Celsius and more.
This means that in future the manufacture of nitroglycerine and the working with
it may be proceeded with quite independent of the considerable fluctuations of the
temperature, and with a greatly reduced danger. This small addition causes
besides the lowering of the temperature a smaller explosiveness of the nitro-
glycerine and of the manufacture made of same, so that same cannot be exploded
by detonator No. 1 and No. 2 but only by No. 3, and are also less sensitive to
blow and collision.
Smokeless and other powders consisting of nitro-compounds without, or in
mixture with, nitric-acid ethers will by means of the addition invented by me also
become less sensitive to temperature, and keep up an equal strength both in
summer and winter.
The said addition is also of equal or even greater importance for the explosives
of nitroglycerine and similar ones.
On
Apart from giving them the afore-mentioned good qualities it also greatly
promotes the gelatinizing process, the alkylated derivatives of the benzol and
phenol class possessing singly as well as in mixture the prominent quality of
producing quite alone already an excellent gelatine with nitrocellulose.
considering also their quality of preventing flames it it must be admitted that they
are the best elements for safety-explosives; for the manufacture of safety explosives
they offer the following advantages:
a. They render the manufacture safe,
b. They allow every degree of explosiveness desired,
c. They are absolutely Hameless,
d. They have the handy shape of the gelatine-dynamite,
e. They can be stored in a damp atmosphere,
f. They are uninflammable and non-sensitive to blow or collision.
To better explain these different advantages, I herewith state some results of
the trials I have made. Gelatine composed of 77% nitroglycerine, 3% collodion
cotton, and 20% creosote does not yet completely explode by means of a detonator
No. 6. According to the reduction or the increase of the addition of creosote, a weaker
or stronger detonator is to be taken. By mixing this gelatine with nitrate of soda

page_text: and wood-meal the explosiveness is increased. A safety explosive uniting all the
above advantages is for instance of the following composition:
27 % nitroglycerine,
1 % collodion cotton,
4.5% creosote,
5.5% bicarbonate of soda,
53 % nitrate of soda,
9 % rye-flour.
In a similar way all modifications imaginable may be arrived at by addition of
other well known admixtures, i.e. Epsom-salt, nitrate of ammonia, nitrate of potash,
together with wood-meal etc. I further do not fail to recall the fact that the
alkylated derivatives of the benzol and phenol class also dissolve nitro carburetted
hydrogens and in connection with these bodies also gelatinize by means of nitro-
cellulose.
In the present state of organic chemical technics the use of a single one out. of
these groups of bodies is mostly still checked by the price and therefore mixtures
are being used. Amongst the latter creosote is at present the most suitable one on
account of its rather uniform composition as well as its cheapness.
But it must be pointed out, that the employed derivatives of the benzol and
phenol class must be almost free of benzol and phenol themselves, which are
always contained in the crude creosote. Only the above mentioned derivatives
and not benzol and phenol themselves have those good qualities, on the contrary
the tests of the manufactures are easily hampered by the presence of these two
bodies.
Having now particularly 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 :-
Method of manufacturing explosives for blasting purposes and for use as
ammunition, distinguished by adding alkylated derivatives of the benzol and
phenol class to nitro-bodies or nitric-acid ethers singly or in mixture, for the
purpose as described.
RUDOLF WEYEL,
By Geo. H. Rayner,
37 Chancery Lane, London, Agent for the Applicant.