079 Nitroglycerin Recipe

Published in

· 4 years ago

  

Nitroglycerin Recipe                            by the Jolly Roger 

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