Degradation of Chlorate-Vaseline Explosive Mixes over Time

[Faeriedragon]

I've been on this forum for quite a while, and I don't say much usually. Right now though, I do have a question I was wondering if you all could help me with. My searches (this forum inclusive) have yielded no conclusive answer...

What is the chemical reaction that renders the chlorate & vaseline explosive mixture useless over time? I've seen this degradation happen before. When the mixture is freshly made, a speck of it works properly even with the drop of a hammer. A week later, the same mixture will not generate any reaction, even when smacked quite viciously. I've read that similar cheddite formulas were once used in wars half a century ago and now we've moved to better things but...how was the explosive stablized to prevent it from degrading?

[Faeriedragon]

I've been on this forum for quite a while, and I don't say much usually. Right now though, I do have a question I was wondering if you all could help me with. My searches (this forum inclusive) have yielded no conclusive answer...

What is the chemical reaction that renders the chlorate & vaseline explosive mixture useless over time? I've seen this degradation happen before. When the mixture is freshly made, a speck of it works properly even with the drop of a hammer. A week later, the same mixture will not generate any reaction, even when smacked quite viciously. I've read that similar cheddite formulas were once used in wars half a century ago and now we've moved to better things but...how was the explosive stablized to prevent it from degrading?

[me234]

I guess it all depends. What type of vaseline are you using, perfumed, non-perfumed? What is your source of CLO3-? Home made, store bought? How is your mixture stored?
Unfortunately I don't have much experience with chlorate mixtures so I doubt I can help much, but tell us what you can about your stuff and we'll try and help you.

[me234]

I guess it all depends. What type of vaseline are you using, perfumed, non-perfumed? What is your source of CLO3-? Home made, store bought? How is your mixture stored?
Unfortunately I don't have much experience with chlorate mixtures so I doubt I can help much, but tell us what you can about your stuff and we'll try and help you.

[Jetex Kid]

Perhaps air bubbles work their way out of the mixture with time, decreasing the sensitivity. Air bubbles are very significant in causing initiation. I can't think of any likely "degradation" reaction, and also if it is stable enough to make it commercially, perhaps there is no significant degradation.

[Jetex Kid]

Perhaps air bubbles work their way out of the mixture with time, decreasing the sensitivity. Air bubbles are very significant in causing initiation. I can't think of any likely "degradation" reaction, and also if it is stable enough to make it commercially, perhaps there is no significant degradation.

[FUTI]

My guess is that slow oxidation (possibly acid catalised) generate enough HCl to cause chlorate reacts generating with chloride ion making chlorine which then can react with vaseline...and I can explain the idea in a couple of pages, but it will make my head spinning. The short version of process would be in time you end up with less and less chlorate, and vaseline become more and more halogenated and thus less prone to oxidation (and naturally explosion).

[FUTI]

My guess is that slow oxidation (possibly acid catalised) generate enough HCl to cause chlorate reacts generating with chloride ion making chlorine which then can react with vaseline...and I can explain the idea in a couple of pages, but it will make my head spinning. The short version of process would be in time you end up with less and less chlorate, and vaseline become more and more halogenated and thus less prone to oxidation (and naturally explosion).

[Jetex Kid]

Do table salt and vaseline form chlorinated compounds?

Old blasting gelatin is very difficult to initiate because the bubbles disappear. Try agitating your cheddite, to incorporate bubbles.

[Jetex Kid]

Do table salt and vaseline form chlorinated compounds?

Old blasting gelatin is very difficult to initiate because the bubbles disappear. Try agitating your cheddite, to incorporate bubbles.

[Jacks Complete]

Table salt doesn't decompose at even high temperatures, unlike Sodium or Potassium Chlorate.

Vaseline is thick enough that entrained air isn't ever going to escape, unless it gets quite warm. As for stirring to trap air, I would be very careful with a chlorate mix as it might decide to explode on you.

I would suggest keeping the mix in a cold place, in a cool place, and in a warmish place, then comparing after a week. This would probably tell you far more than anything theoretical.

[Jacks Complete]

Table salt doesn't decompose at even high temperatures, unlike Sodium or Potassium Chlorate.

Vaseline is thick enough that entrained air isn't ever going to escape, unless it gets quite warm. As for stirring to trap air, I would be very careful with a chlorate mix as it might decide to explode on you.

I would suggest keeping the mix in a cold place, in a cool place, and in a warmish place, then comparing after a week. This would probably tell you far more than anything theoretical.

[Jetex Kid]

The point is that when chlorates decompose, they create salt and oxygen, and the salt is stable, barring extreme heat such as can be supplied by a fuel like aluminum.

In Fedoroff, Vol. 3, p.275 there is a graph of "aptitude of initiation" for KClO3 and vaseline, indicating that the smallest suitable cap is a No. 8 at 4% vaseline content, and that at 13% vaseline, the cheddite will not initiate at all.

I believe that cheddites are both stable and insensitive, but that their cost and lack of power caused their demise. With 12% vaseline, KClO3 cheddite is 55% salt, which cripples its power.

[Jetex Kid]

The point is that when chlorates decompose, they create salt and oxygen, and the salt is stable, barring extreme heat such as can be supplied by a fuel like aluminum.

In Fedoroff, Vol. 3, p.275 there is a graph of "aptitude of initiation" for KClO3 and vaseline, indicating that the smallest suitable cap is a No. 8 at 4% vaseline content, and that at 13% vaseline, the cheddite will not initiate at all.

I believe that cheddites are both stable and insensitive, but that their cost and lack of power caused their demise. With 12% vaseline, KClO3 cheddite is 55% salt, which cripples its power.

[hereno]

In Fedoroff, Vol. 3, p.275 .

Are you sure?

Anyway, there is a thread on sciencemadness that may be interesting, relating to NaClO4 dissolved in diethylene glycol which has a high VOD (>6000m/s) and is available as a commercial explosive. Topic is one of the recent ones. Seems like a much better alternative to the discussed cheddites, if you can handle it being liquid.

[hereno]

In Fedoroff, Vol. 3, p.275 .

Are you sure?

Anyway, there is a thread on sciencemadness that may be interesting, relating to NaClO4 dissolved in diethylene glycol which has a high VOD (>6000m/s) and is available as a commercial explosive. Topic is one of the recent ones. Seems like a much better alternative to the discussed cheddites, if you can handle it being liquid.

[nbk2000]

Could always warm it up to melting point and bubble in air through a frit and let it cool down, if the desired effect to to entrain air bubbles to increase sensitivity.

[nbk2000]

Could always warm it up to melting point and bubble in air through a frit and let it cool down, if the desired effect to to entrain air bubbles to increase sensitivity.

[Diabolique]

Many explosives that are plasticized (incl. Cheddites, Comp. A, Comp. C-series, etc), suffer from recrystalization. The result is that the plastic mixture solidifies and becomes insensitive to initiation. Something similar happens in blasting gelatin.

In Chlorate-Vaseline, the vaseline slowly disolves a tiny proportion of the chlorate (doesn't need to dissolve much), and the solution-deposition differential between the small and large particles (due to the mass:surface area differential) causes the large particles to grow and eventually merge. The result is like concrete, and about as explosive.

This is used to allow Comp A to be press-loadable into munitions, then solidify into a stable charge in the munition.

To reduce this, and prolong the plastic life of the explosive, ~0.5% of lecthin (food additive) is used. I believe I learned this from T. Urbanski's 'Chemistry and Technology of Explosives' - which cost ~$50 per volume when I was a teenager. Today $1500 for the set. My background - I taught this stuff in the Army. :eek:

[Diabolique]

Many explosives that are plasticized (incl. Cheddites, Comp. A, Comp. C-series, etc), suffer from recrystalization. The result is that the plastic mixture solidifies and becomes insensitive to initiation. Something similar happens in blasting gelatin.

In Chlorate-Vaseline, the vaseline slowly disolves a tiny proportion of the chlorate (doesn't need to dissolve much), and the solution-deposition differential between the small and large particles (due to the mass:surface area differential) causes the large particles to grow and eventually merge. The result is like concrete, and about as explosive.

This is used to allow Comp A to be press-loadable into munitions, then solidify into a stable charge in the munition.

To reduce this, and prolong the plastic life of the explosive, ~0.5% of lecthin (food additive) is used. I believe I learned this from T. Urbanski's 'Chemistry and Technology of Explosives' - which cost ~$50 per volume when I was a teenager. Today $1500 for the set. My background - I taught this stuff in the Army. :eek:

[Boomer]

According to what I recently read in Urbanski and Fordham, stirred-in bubbles are much too big. Thats why they add peroxides to water-gels, or 600 mesh alu with air entrapped on the surface. The air trapped in *new* gelatine is different, as it comes from very small bubbles adhered to the NC *before* gelatinizing.

Plus, heating will drive out most of the remaining gas (see aged gelatine in tropic climates, where they used a guhr-dynamite primer before, and now add crystalline HEs or Ba sulphate). Even if you bubble in air and cool it fast enough to trap it, you gonna have monster bubbles that are bigger than the det zone is thick, making them useless.

Better add some fine grit (salts with spec. weight above 2.8 g/ccm, or something hard like quartz dust. Just make sure the particles are small (<<0.1mm).

[Boomer]

According to what I recently read in Urbanski and Fordham, stirred-in bubbles are much too big. Thats why they add peroxides to water-gels, or 600 mesh alu with air entrapped on the surface. The air trapped in *new* gelatine is different, as it comes from very small bubbles adhered to the NC *before* gelatinizing.

Plus, heating will drive out most of the remaining gas (see aged gelatine in tropic climates, where they used a guhr-dynamite primer before, and now add crystalline HEs or Ba sulphate). Even if you bubble in air and cool it fast enough to trap it, you gonna have monster bubbles that are bigger than the det zone is thick, making them useless.

Better add some fine grit (salts with spec. weight above 2.8 g/ccm, or something hard like quartz dust. Just make sure the particles are small (<<0.1mm).

[xyz]

Maybe add a little bit of activated carbon? That has a massive surface area due to all the microscopic air pockets in it.

[xyz]

Maybe add a little bit of activated carbon? That has a massive surface area due to all the microscopic air pockets in it.

[FUTI]

Agitation of chlorate is bad idea. I never wrote this before, but where I'm, once upon a time...(very long time ago) there was a chemistry student who liked to experiment with explosives so he tried once to make sugar/chlorate mixture. It went bad. He made it, and by what I heard pour it into standard chemical reagent bottle (ground glass sealed one). He tried to tighten that seal to be sure it doesn't accumulate moisture over night. That was it small quantity of mixture held on the seal detonated whole charge and he lost both hands (not arms just hands). He couldn't finish his chemistry studies and switch to social science (languagees). He is professor now and even drives a car although he has metalic protetic implants instead of hands. That is how tricky chlorate is.

XYZ has a point in mentioning active carbon but still I don't know how chlorate will act with him present in mixture - although it is other way around carbon has massive surface area and lots of pores and that is why it adsorbs a lot of air inside.

This thread made me think up a small experiment with this mixture. This is how I would try to check my previous hypothesis. First mixture would made of chlorate and vaseline mixed with fine quartz, all other mixtures would be made by mixing the chlorate and vaseline with quartz/NaCl mix in different proportions. I think quarzt is acidic enough to start the reaction I suspect occuring slowly in time in that mixture. Now you only need to compare the time (let it age of course) when those mixures stop exploding or their relative strength, and if pattern occurs to try to resolve the key point of mechanism that leads to inactivation that should be prevented. Bubbles are great idea, but I don't think their dissaperance would made this explosive unusable just less powerfull.

[FUTI]

Agitation of chlorate is bad idea. I never wrote this before, but where I'm, once upon a time...(very long time ago) there was a chemistry student who liked to experiment with explosives so he tried once to make sugar/chlorate mixture. It went bad. He made it, and by what I heard pour it into standard chemical reagent bottle (ground glass sealed one). He tried to tighten that seal to be sure it doesn't accumulate moisture over night. That was it small quantity of mixture held on the seal detonated whole charge and he lost both hands (not arms just hands). He couldn't finish his chemistry studies and switch to social science (languagees). He is professor now and even drives a car although he has metalic protetic implants instead of hands. That is how tricky chlorate is.

XYZ has a point in mentioning active carbon but still I don't know how chlorate will act with him present in mixture - although it is other way around carbon has massive surface area and lots of pores and that is why it adsorbs a lot of air inside.

This thread made me think up a small experiment with this mixture. This is how I would try to check my previous hypothesis. First mixture would made of chlorate and vaseline mixed with fine quartz, all other mixtures would be made by mixing the chlorate and vaseline with quartz/NaCl mix in different proportions. I think quarzt is acidic enough to start the reaction I suspect occuring slowly in time in that mixture. Now you only need to compare the time (let it age of course) when those mixures stop exploding or their relative strength, and if pattern occurs to try to resolve the key point of mechanism that leads to inactivation that should be prevented. Bubbles are great idea, but I don't think their dissaperance would made this explosive unusable just less powerfull.

[me234]

I like the activated carbon idea, however, if you suspect that the insensitivity may in any way be due to a lack of chlorate concentration in the mix, I would be hesitant to add more fuel to it. Maybe stir in some 50:50 C/KClO3 mix for the surface area.

[me234]

I like the activated carbon idea, however, if you suspect that the insensitivity may in any way be due to a lack of chlorate concentration in the mix, I would be hesitant to add more fuel to it. Maybe stir in some 50:50 C/KClO3 mix for the surface area.

[xyz]

Yeah, but if you're going by weight, then it takes a LOT of activated carbon to weigh any significant amount. I doubt that the addition of activated carbon would throw the oxygen balance out by much. After all, some companies sell the stuff by the litre instead of the kilogram, due to it being annoying as hell to weigh (very low density).

Still, on the other hand, a little extra KClO3 can't hurt...

[xyz]

Yeah, but if you're going by weight, then it takes a LOT of activated carbon to weigh any significant amount. I doubt that the addition of activated carbon would throw the oxygen balance out by much. After all, some companies sell the stuff by the litre instead of the kilogram, due to it being annoying as hell to weigh (very low density).

Still, on the other hand, a little extra KClO3 can't hurt...

[Faeriedragon]

Here's some more details on the experiment:

All the mixtures tested were around the 94% KClo3 + 6% vaseline ballpark with slightly greater and lesser percentages of chlorate, but they all exhibited the same desensitizing quality over time. The chlorate was from skylighter. Vaseline was plain vaseline with no perfumes - label just says "100% pure petroleum jelly contains no colors, fragrances, or irritants". Though I'm not sure to what standards they hold their products since it's just plain topical jelly for external use. The vaseline was heated until melted into a liquid, and the KClo3 was kneaded in gently but intimately, using wooden tools. The samples were stored in small, sturdy plastic containers as crumbly solids until compressed to around 1.3g/cc.

I've read on internet sources that sodium and calcium contaminants remaining in crystals of homemade KClo3 may make their storage life uncertain. I don't know if what they say is true. The Kclo3 from skylighter seems to be of commercial quality and has worked for pyrotechnic applications. The KCl03 has 0.2% PCP anti-cake though, whatever that is! I've emailed the company to ask them what the chem. composition of PCP anti-cake is.

I think airpockets leaking out of the explosive mixture over time is an interesting idea, but like FUTI said, I don't think this would cause the explosive to become undetonatable. Some formulas have a small percentage of paraffin in them - could this prevent desensitization by giving the mixture a firmer consistency?

I've also caught a whiff of KClo3 + brake fluid, but I haven't been able to find any information on it's general stability and other characteristics. Sounds a little messy to me.

[Faeriedragon]

Here's some more details on the experiment:

All the mixtures tested were around the 94% KClo3 + 6% vaseline ballpark with slightly greater and lesser percentages of chlorate, but they all exhibited the same desensitizing quality over time. The chlorate was from skylighter. Vaseline was plain vaseline with no perfumes - label just says "100% pure petroleum jelly contains no colors, fragrances, or irritants". Though I'm not sure to what standards they hold their products since it's just plain topical jelly for external use. The vaseline was heated until melted into a liquid, and the KClo3 was kneaded in gently but intimately, using wooden tools. The samples were stored in small, sturdy plastic containers as crumbly solids until compressed to around 1.3g/cc.

I've read on internet sources that sodium and calcium contaminants remaining in crystals of homemade KClo3 may make their storage life uncertain. I don't know if what they say is true. The Kclo3 from skylighter seems to be of commercial quality and has worked for pyrotechnic applications. The KCl03 has 0.2% PCP anti-cake though, whatever that is! I've emailed the company to ask them what the chem. composition of PCP anti-cake is.

I think airpockets leaking out of the explosive mixture over time is an interesting idea, but like FUTI said, I don't think this would cause the explosive to become undetonatable. Some formulas have a small percentage of paraffin in them - could this prevent desensitization by giving the mixture a firmer consistency?

I've also caught a whiff of KClo3 + brake fluid, but I haven't been able to find any information on it's general stability and other characteristics. Sounds a little messy to me.

[me234]

Thank you XYZ, that's a very good point, I forgot about that.
I not so sure about chemical degradation of chlorates in vaseline over only a week. Faeriedragon, how were you storing it, in a fridge? In sunlight?
Maybe try a KClO3 / C mixture with a small amount of vaseline; and a KClO3 / vaseline mix with a small amount of C in it. See if any problems as regards impact sensitivity develop in those.
Also, have you tried detonating the mix with a detonator, not just a hammer? If time only decreases impact sensitivity a bit, but doesn't render it undetonable, then your mix might be useful due to its lessened impact sensitivity.
Can you maybe check the effects of friction on the mixture over time?
Sorry about all the requests, it's just that now you've got my curiosity involved.

[me234]

Thank you XYZ, that's a very good point, I forgot about that.
I not so sure about chemical degradation of chlorates in vaseline over only a week. Faeriedragon, how were you storing it, in a fridge? In sunlight?
Maybe try a KClO3 / C mixture with a small amount of vaseline; and a KClO3 / vaseline mix with a small amount of C in it. See if any problems as regards impact sensitivity develop in those.
Also, have you tried detonating the mix with a detonator, not just a hammer? If time only decreases impact sensitivity a bit, but doesn't render it undetonable, then your mix might be useful due to its lessened impact sensitivity.
Can you maybe check the effects of friction on the mixture over time?
Sorry about all the requests, it's just that now you've got my curiosity involved.

[Faeriedragon]

Sorry guys, I replied earlier about the preparation technique used, but I've only made a few posts so there's the limbo time before my message is posted on the board.

The chlorate-vaseline mixture was stored in a cool place, plastic container, away from sunlight. The mixture was originally dry and stayed dry after production. This may or may not be relevant, but when I tried detonating the mix with a hammer, it is pressed to "optimal" density and then smashed between the concrete and the hammer.

In regards to the C additive, I've used KClO3 and carbon (lampblack + pine charcoal) to coat rice hulls for some pyro burst charges before, so it should be okay to add the small amount of C into the mix.

me234, I am curious too about finding answers to some of those questions that you asked. By the way, I'm away from my equipment until second week of next month, so experimentation may have to wait - unless someone else does some investigation in the meantime. I think it would be interesting to detonate the mixture with either a detonator or a high current. ;) That would be great if the mix turns out to be detonatable, but I would still be looking for the physical/chemical reason behind why such a simple binary mixture of 2 chems would change from a moderately sensitive mixture to one that is insensitive to the hardest hammer whack against rough concrete within just a short storage timeframe of about 1 week!

Has anyone *not* had this problem over time with their vaseline-chlorate mixtures? It would be neat to hear other people's experiences and observations as well.

[Faeriedragon]

Sorry guys, I replied earlier about the preparation technique used, but I've only made a few posts so there's the limbo time before my message is posted on the board.

The chlorate-vaseline mixture was stored in a cool place, plastic container, away from sunlight. The mixture was originally dry and stayed dry after production. This may or may not be relevant, but when I tried detonating the mix with a hammer, it is pressed to "optimal" density and then smashed between the concrete and the hammer.

In regards to the C additive, I've used KClO3 and carbon (lampblack + pine charcoal) to coat rice hulls for some pyro burst charges before, so it should be okay to add the small amount of C into the mix.

me234, I am curious too about finding answers to some of those questions that you asked. By the way, I'm away from my equipment until second week of next month, so experimentation may have to wait - unless someone else does some investigation in the meantime. I think it would be interesting to detonate the mixture with either a detonator or a high current. ;) That would be great if the mix turns out to be detonatable, but I would still be looking for the physical/chemical reason behind why such a simple binary mixture of 2 chems would change from a moderately sensitive mixture to one that is insensitive to the hardest hammer whack against rough concrete within just a short storage timeframe of about 1 week!

Has anyone *not* had this problem over time with their vaseline-chlorate mixtures? It would be neat to hear other people's experiences and observations as well.

[Diabolique]

Experiments at LLNL with pre-shocked explosives (exposed to the shockwave of an nearby explosive, but did not undergo sympathetic detonation) is that they become less sensitive to initiation. They believe that the microbubbles in the explosive were compressed out. These microbubbles collapse, with adiabatic heating, and become initiation points. They tried microballons of glass and plastic, but I do not believe they had much success in making explosives more sensitive to initiation.

The problem is not microbubles, but recrystalization, as I stated earlier. I strongly suggest trying 0.5% lecithin in the formulation. Semtex used to use lecithin, but stopped it to create a formulation that solidified after about 2-3 years and became useless. Composition C (88.3% RDX; 11.1% Motor oil; 0.6% lecithin according to AMCP 706-177) used in WW2 had it for this reason.

Chlorate-vaseoline I have made lasted at most 2 weeks, usually less, before solidifying. The lecithin let it remain plastic for at least 3 months (probably longer, but I didn't want to leave it hanging around).

[Cindor]

I made some experiments with KClO3 mixtures... since I have no vaseline I made a mixture, under heat, of paraffin and soy bean oil (used en ANSOY) with the texture of vaseline, Al and charcoal. The mixture wasn't "hammer sensitive" (hehe), doesn't detonate (no even initiates). When exposed to flame it just burns, but not too fast. I let the mixture (like 2 gms.) in an open conteiner 2 weeks, and then light it. It reacts just like the fresh one. I didn't tried to detonate since I have just a little bit of chlorate (and I can't get more where I live), and I'm saving it for my thermites, so if anyone have chlorate, please do some tests.

[FullMetalJacket]

Many explosives that are plasticized (incl. Cheddites, Comp. A, Comp. C-series, etc), suffer from recrystalization. The result is that the plastic mixture solidifies and becomes insensitive to initiation. Something similar happens in blasting gelatin.

In Chlorate-Vaseline, the vaseline slowly disolves a tiny proportion of the chlorate (doesn't need to dissolve much), and the solution-deposition differential between the small and large particles (due to the mass:surface area differential) causes the large particles to grow and eventually merge. The result is like concrete, and about as explosive.

This is used to allow Comp A to be press-loadable into munitions, then solidify into a stable charge in the munition.

To reduce this, and prolong the plastic life of the explosive, ~0.5% of lecthin (food additive) is used. I believe I learned this from T. Urbanski's 'Chemistry and Technology of Explosives' - which cost ~$50 per volume when I was a teenager. Today $1500 for the set. My background - I taught this stuff in the Army. :eek:

You wouldn't be at all inclined to sell that would you? eBay, mmmm?

+++++++

This is why I tell people to NOT quote whole posts.

What are you interested in buying, eh? Chlorate plastique? Lecthin? Urbanski volumes?

You need to be specific.

NBK

[Diabolique]

Faeriedragon: PCP = Poly(caprolactone) polyol according to my info.

FullMetalJacket: Not for sale, but am trying to get the nerve to scan them (over 1500 pages). Get AMCP 706-177 (AD 764340) and the LLNL Explosives Handbook - free from the US gov, if you have the nerve to ask the right people.

Chlorate-vaseline's VoD increases up to just under about 1.9 g/cc, where it dead-presses. PETN will do the same thing, which makes it useful as a gun propellant.

[grendel23]

Diabolique,
If you are going to scan 'Chemistry and Technology of Explosives', please consider starting with volume 4. The first three are available as reasonably high quaility PDFs, but volume 4 is marginal.
I am sure everyone would love a crisp scan of that volume.

[nbk2000]

A high quality digital camera makes short work of copying large books.

Megalomania has written a nice tutorial on how to do it. UTFSE for details.

Best part is that, if you have a library of books, you can buy the camera, spend all day, every day, for a month photographing tens of thousands of pages, and then return the camera to get your money back.

So the only thing it costs you is time.

Once you've got the images, others can do the OCR->PDF conversion. The main holdup is getting it from analog to digital.

[Diabolique]

Grendel23: I have heard rumors of a volume 4, but have never encountered it. I do have "Nitro Compounds" by Urbanski, but it is unrelated to the "Chemistry and Technology of Explosives" set. Lots of info on using nitro compounds in medicine, though.

Where can I get the C&TE in PDF? All the links I encounter are either dead or broken.

NBK2000: digitizing isn't the problem, I've worn out two scanners this year, and the third is begining to moan. The OCR I have just okay, but makes too many mistakes on tabular data. I have pretty much completed digitizing my explosives library, just a couple of dozen texts left there. Can you recommend a _GOOD_ OCR program that will run on Windows ME (XP is so bad it can suck start a jet engine)? I am using Paperport right now.
__________
Back to the thread's topic. Macrobubbles, about 0.1 mm and larger, are the primary cause of reduced density, which reduces brisance (shattering power, for those new to detonics). Microbubbles, which can only be seen under a microscope, increase sensitivity. When loading any munition, the explosive is first purged of the larger bubbles by vacuum processing. This sucks out the big bubbles, and most of the small ones.

Melt loaded explosives, such as TNT and its mixes, are vacuum processed if they are to be loaded into projectiles, such as artillery shells. This eliminates not only bubbles, but much of the disolved air as well. As the TNT cools, the air can form bubbles that can collapse on firing the shell, potentially initiating a premature in the gun barrel. The other forms of defects are pipeing (tubes of air down the center from shrinkage on solidifying), cracks (planar and cylindrical rings around the center from cooling too slow), and voids, irregular bubbles from entrained air.

Even NG, when vacuum processed to eliminate microbubles, becomes a lot more stable in the drop tests, at least for a while, until the microbubbles return. The PBXes are almost all vacuum processed during forming, after being beaded. PBXes that are semi-liquid before curing are so viscus that vacuum processing is manditory to eliminate voids and bubbles.

Higher density = higher brisance
Microscopic bubbles good (if you want more sensitivity), big bubbles can be very bad for good performance and explosives that can be safely handled.

[nbk2000]

ABBEY Finereader Pro is what mega and I use for our OCR work. Works fine. :)

Also, your choice of O/S is...:o

Win2K Pro is the best of the Windows O/S's. Stable, compatible with most XP based programs, and the last one of the Widows O/S that didn't phone home or require 'registration'. :)

[ETCS (Ret)]

Tenney L. Davis in his work The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives states with respect to Chlorate Explosives:

"In the Street Explosives, later called Cheddites because they were manufactured at Chedde in France, the chlorate is phlegmatized by means of castor oil, a substance which appears to have remarkable powers in this respect."

Could the addition of the castor oil, in 5% to 8% quantity in most of the mixtures, have been to overcome the crystallization aging problem?

[meyer25]

I think the 'desensitization', occuring in KClO3/vaseline mix over just weeks is simply full phlegmatization of the mix. Not to worry about detonation properties if proper initiated (2g lead azide+3g PETN).

[30yearstoolate!]

I know Chlorates are much more powerful oxidizers than nitrates but theoretically could a compound be made using potassium nitrate or ammonium nitrate instead? Would these also suffer from decreased sensitivity over time?

According to "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" ammonium nitrate can be explosive on its own but works better in conjuction with initiator substances introduced into the compound.

The sensitiveness of ammonium nitrate to initiation is increased by the addition to it of explosive substances, such as nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, or aromatic nitro compounds, or of non-explosive combustible materials, such as rosin, sulfur, charcoal, flour, sugar, oil, or paraffin.
Substances of the latter class react with the oxygen which the ammonium nitrate would otherwise liberate; they produce additional gas and heat, and increase both the power of the explosive and the temperature of its explosion.

So what I am getting to is would ammonium nitrate and petroleum jelly compound be almost as effective? Or would it contain the same problems? Finally with nitrates being less sensitive than chlorates would it be less effective than the chlorate vasoline mixture?

[nbk2000]

Potassium and Sodium Nitrates have been used instead of Ammonium Nitrate in making binary explosives with Nitromethane.

So there maybe some possibility of it, but I would think that if they could have used very simple nitrates instead of more complex chlorates, they would have.

[Bluebottle]

Well, quite... But isn't it likely that it is feasible to do, however the power of it was significantly low as to not warrant its mention? Surely experimentation would yield answers quite readily. Furthermore, there would be a great advantage in making such use of these readily available substances.

[nbk2000]

If you want to try it and report back the results, no one here will stop you. :)

[defiant]

To guide you in your research, check out US Patent No. 3,546,034.

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=3,546,034.PN.&OS=PN/3,546,034&RS=PN/3,546,034

[cutefix]

IIRC the inventor of Kinepak did try sodium nitrate with nitromethane and was able to get a satisfactory detonation...Check the patent files for that..

Ah..wait ....I got it from my files....
USPTO 3,718,512 assigned to Gerald Hurst"POROUS PARTICLES CONTAINING DISPERSED ORGANIC LIQUID AND GASEOUS COMPONENTS"