Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 16th May, 1898-Accepted, 16th July, 1898
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of London, Consulting Engineer and Chartered Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention (as communicated to me from abroad
by the Firm of Gesellschaft fur Linde's Eismaschinen, of Wiesbaden, Germany,
Manufacturers) to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the use of mixtures of liquid oxygen and oxidisable
substances as explosives.
It has been found from exhaustive experiments that such a mixture behaves
in a similar manner to dynamite, that is to say, that if ignited in the ordinary
way, it burns away, but if ignited by blasting caps it produces detonations with
an explosive action. There was used in these experiments on the one hand
liquefied atmospheric air, from which by evaporation the larger portion of nitrogen
was eliminated, and on the other hand several oxidisable substances, such as wood-
charcoal, wood-pulp, sulphur, petroleum, and the like.
The blasting method based on these results of the experiments offers in par-
ticular the following advantages.
1. The explosive substances are manufactured directly at the place
of consumption by mixing the liquid oxygen with the oxidisable substance; owing
to the evaporation of the oxygen the mixture cannot be preserved. All the
dangers resulting from conveyance and from the unauthorised removal are there-
fore avoided.
2. If blasting operations are to be carried out during a longer space of time in
the same place, as in mines, tunnelings and the like, the new explosives are very
much cheaper than the substances hitherto used, if a peculiar machine for liquefy-
ing air be employed.
3. By selecting the proper oxidisable substance and with a sufficient purity
of the liquid oxygen, explosive mixtures can be manufactured, the products of
combustion of which consist almost exclusively of carbonic acid; they fulfil there-
fore the most stringent requirements of efficacious explosives.
In using the new explosive compound in rocks it must not be placed directly
into the blast holes, as the heat transmitted to it would be too great and con-
sequently the evaporation would be too rapid, but the compound is first poured
into cases of a bad conductor of heat, such as paper, wood-pulp, or any other
suitable material, which only permits of a slow evaporation of the liquid.
If an oxidisable substance is to be used in a liquid condition, such as petroleum,
it must first be finely subdivided so as to be brought into a form offering to the
Thus for instance cotton-wool or other
oxygen to be added a very large surface.
suitable finely divided material may be impregnated with petroleum and then
introduced into the cases, whereupon the liquid oxygen is filled in.
16th day of August 1897
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: New Explosive Compound.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, formerly of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, but
now of Birkbeck Bank Chambers, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of London, Consulting Engineer and Chartered Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention (as communicated to me from abroad
by the Firm of Gesellschaft fur Linde's Eismaschinen, of Wiesbaden, Germany,
Manufacturers), and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-
This invention relates to the use of mixtures of liquid oxygen and oxidisable
substances as explosives.
It has been found from exhaustive experiments that such a mixture behaves
in a similar manner to dynamite, that is to say, that if ignited in the ordinary
way, it burns away, but if ignited by blasting caps it produces detonations with
an explosive action. There was used in these experiments on the one hand
liquefied atmospheric air, from which by evaporation the larger portion of nitrogen
was eliminated, and on the other hand several oxidisable substances, such as wood-
charcoal, wood-pulp, sulphur, petroleum, and the like.
The blasting method based on these results of the experiments offers in par-
ticular the following advantages.
1. The explosive substances
are manufactured directly at the place
of consumption by mixing the liquid oxygen with the oxidisable substance; owing
to the evaporation of the oxygen the mixture cannot be preserved. All the
dangers resulting from conveyance and from the unauthorized removal are there-
fore avoided.
2. If blasting operations are to be carried out during a longer space of time in
the same place, as in mines, tunnelings and the like, the new explosives are very
much cheaper than the substances hitherto used, if an appropriate machine for
liquefying air be employed.
3. By selecting the proper oxidisable substance and with a sufficient purity
of the liquid oxygen, explosive mixtures can be manufactured, the products of
combustion of which consist almost exclusively of carbonic acid; they fulfil there-
fore the most stringent requirements of efficacious explosives.
In using the new explosive compound in rocks it must not be placed directly
into the blast-holes, as the heat transmitted to it would be too great and con-
sequently the evaporation would be too rapid, but the compound is first poured
into cases of a bad conductor of heat, such as paper, wood-pulp, or any other
suitable material, which only permits of a slow evaporation of the liquid.
If an oxidisable substance is to be used in a liquid condition, such as petroleum,
it must first be finely subdivided so as to be brought into a form offering to the
oxygen to be added a very large surface. Thus for instance cotton-wool or other
suitable finely divided material may be impregnated with petroleum and then
introduced into the cases, whereupon the liquid oxygen is filled in.
The following mixtures have been successfully used as explosives by my foreign
correspondents, but they are here given merely by way of example, not as limit-
ing the proportions in which the constituents may be mixed, or limiting the
oxidisable substances which may be used, within this invention.

page_text: (1) Wood charcoal powder
Oxygen
Nitrogen
23
per cent.
61.5 per cent.
15.5 per cent.
In this case the charcoal powder is easily scattered if it is mixed with the
violently boiling liquid; to avoid this scattering cotton wool is used in which
case advantageous proportions are
(2) Cotton wool -
Wool charcoal powder
Oxygen
Nitrogen
6.5 per cent.
19.5 per cent.
59
per cent.
-
15
per cent.
The mixture given under (1) is rendered somewhat more disruptive in its action
if flowers of sulphur be added; a suitable proportion is:-
(3) Sulphur
Wood charcoal
Oxygen
Nitrogen
9
-
18
per cent.
per cent.
58
per cent.
-
15
per cent.
It is to be understood that where oxygen and nitrogen are mentioned in the
foregoing examples the liquefied gases are meant.
Although the cotton wool in example (2) is used mainly for the purpose of
distributing the charcoal powder and preventing it from scattering, it is to be
noted that this material itself will serve as the oxidisable substance.
In adjusting the proportions of the oxygen to oxidisable substance regard must
be had to the desirability of converting the latter into fully oxidised products.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is: --
1. A new explosive compound consisting of liquid oxygen, or of liquid air from
which the larger proportion of the nitrogen has been evaporated, mixed with an
oxidisable substance, substantially as described.
an
2. A new explosive compound consisting of liquid oxygen mixed with
oxidisable substance which is distributed in a finely divided condition upon a
material affording a large amount of surface for contact with the oxygen, sub-
stantially as described.
3. The method of using an explosive compound such as is referred to in
Claims 1 and 2 consisting in placing the oxidisable substance, preferably in a
finely divided condition or contained in the pores of some absorbent material, in a
case made of a substance which is a bad conductor of heat, and into which is
poured the liquid oxygen or liquid air enriched in oxygen, the case being then
introduced into the blast hole, substantially as described.
Toted this 10th 1...
1000
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.