Like all chemists I must advise you all to take the greatest care
and caution when you are doing this. Even if you have made this stuff
before.
This first article will give you information on making
nitroglyerin, the basic ingredient in a lot of explosives such as
straight dynamites, and geletin dynamites.
Making nitroglycerin
1. Fill a 75-milliliter beaker to the 13 ml. Level with fuming
red nitric acid, of 98% pure concentration.
2. Place the beaker in an ice bath and allow to cool below room
temp.
3. After it has cooled, add to it three times the amount of
fuming sulferic acid (99% h2so4). In other words, add to the
now-cool fuming nitric acid 39 ml. Of fuming sulferic acid.
When mixing any acids, always do it slowly and carefully to
avoid splattering.
4. When the two are mixed, lower thier temp. By adding more ice
to the bath, about 10-15 degrees centigrade. (Use a
mercury-operated thermometer)
5. When the acid solution has cooled to the desired temperature,
it is ready for the glycerin. The glycerin must be added in
small amounts using a medicine dropper. (Read this step about
10 times!) Glycerin is added slowly and carefully (i mean
careful!) Until the entire surface of the acid it covered with
it.
6. This is a dangerous point since the nitration will take place
as soon as the glycerin is added. The nitration will produce
heat, so the solution must be kept below 30 degrees
centigrade! If the solution should go above 30 degrees,
immediately dump the solution into the ice bath! This will
insure that it does not go off in your face!
7. For the first ten minutes of nitration, the mixture should be
gently stirred. In a normal reaction the nitroglycerin will
form as a layer on top of the acid solution, while the sulferic
acid will absorb the excess water.
8. After the nitration has taken place, and the nitroglycerin has
formed on the top of the solution, the entire beaker should be
transferred slowly and carefully to another beaker of water.
When this is done the nitroglycerin will settle at the bottem
so the other acids can be drained away.
9. After removing as much acid as posible without disturbing the
nitroglycerin, remove the nitroglycerin with an eyedropper and
place it in a bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate in case
you didn't know) solution. The sodium is an alkalai and will
nuetralize much of the acid remaining. This process should be
repeated as much as necesarry using blue litmus paper to check
for the presence of acid. The remaining acid only makes the
nitroglycerin more unstable than it already is.
10. Finally! The final step is to remove the nitroglycerin from
the bicarbonate. His is done with and eye- dropper, slowly
and carefully. The usual test to see if nitration has been
successful is to place one drop of the nitroglycerin on metal
and ignite it. If it is true nitroglycerin it will burn with
a clear blue flame.
** Caution **
Nitro is very sensative to decomposition, heating dropping, or
jarring, and may explode if left undisturbed and cool.
-------------Jolly Roger
