The Anarchist's Cookbook - Explosives

by William Powell

How to make Nitroglycerin

All modern explosives are simply a derivitive of a nitric acid base. When nitric acid is mixed with other compounds, this is called nitration. Mercury, sugar, cork, cotton, and other substances can be used as the nitrating agent....well, enough of the theory- on to the explosives.

NITROGLYCERIN C3H5 (NO3)3

1. Fill a 75ml. beaker to the 13 ml. level with fuming nitric acid.

2. Place beaker in an ice bath and let it cool to around 0 degrees.

3. Add 39 ml. of fuming sulfuric acid. The stronger the better. Be sure to pour slowly and carefully.

4. Watch the temperature with a centigrade thermometer. If it gets too hot, stop pouring the sulfuric acid until it cools.

5. When the acid solutons are about 15 degrees C, add a few drops of glycerin with an eyedropper, SLOWLY, until the entire surface of the acid is covered with it.

6. If the temp rises above 30 degrees, you will blow yourself up. Dont let it rise above 30 degrees.

7. Gently stir the nitrated mixture. The nitroglycerin will form on top of the acid and the sulfuric acid will absorb the excess water.

8. Transfer the solution to another beaker of water. The nitro will settle on the bottom and most of the acid can be drained away.

9. Remove the nitro with an eyedropper (this will not be easy) and drop it into a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) mixture to neutralize remaining acid.

10. Remove the nitro from the bicarbonate with the eyedropper.

11. You now have nitro, ready for use. It should burn with a clear blue flame if it is of decent purity.

MERCURY FULMINATE

Mercury fulminate is a high explosive, often used in blasting caps. It is very stable, much more than nitro.

1. Take 5 grams pure mercury and mix with 35 ml. nitric acid.

2. SLOWLY AND GENTLY heat the mixture. When it bubbles and turns green, you know the silver mercury is dissolved. You should to this outside.

3. After it is dissolved, pour the solution into a small flask of ethyl alcohol. This will result in red fumes.

4. After a half hour or so, the red fumes will turn white, indicating that the process is near its final stage.

5. Add distilled water to the solution.

6. Filter the solution through a coffee filter. You should get small white crystals. These crystal are pure mercury fulminate, and should be washed several times to get rid of the excess acid.

7. Go blow something up.

GUNCOTTON - SMOKELESS POWDER

This low explosive is almost in the upper explosive class, and it is very stable and easy to make.

1. Boil cotton for 30 minutes in a solution of 2% NaOH (lye). If the solution does not turn yellow while boiling, you did not add enough NaOH.

2. Wash the cotton in hot water and let it dry.

3. Mix slowly and carefully, at 25 degrees C, 250 ml. Concentrated Sulfuric acid, 150 ml. concentrated nitric acid, and 20 ml. distilled water. They must be kept at 25 degrees.

4. Place the dried cotton in the acid solution (you should have it in an ice bath- the acid solution that it) and stir for 35 minutes.

5. Nitration is now complete. Wash the acids away in boiling water at least three times. If you do not wash the acids away, it will be more unstable.

6. Let the smokeless powder (guncoton) dry in AIR. If you put it in the oven to dry it, it will explode. This may sound stupid, but a 11 year old did it and he is no more.

I made some of this stuff recently, and it works pretty well!! If you stuff it into a pipe and pack it in, cap both ends, and stick a fuse inside (rocket fuses work the best) you have a devastating pipe bomb. When I did it we blew it up near a fence... the fence was blasted into pieces and there was flying pieces of steel everywhere!! Be sure to get far enough away...

Smokeless powder, along with many other explosives, MUST be under pressure to explode.

MAKING TETRYL

Tetryl is a compound commonly used in TNT, often used to set it off. The stuff on road flares that ignites when you scratch it on the asphalt is a weak type of tetryl. It is very powerful. It was used in Vietnam as booby traps---one of these traps was to fill a pipe (smoke type) with tetryl in the mouthpiece. When someone took a puff, BOOM!! No more head............

1. A small amount of dimethyllaniline (as much as you want to make) is dissolved in excess sulfuric acid.

2. This mixture is now added to an equal amount of nitric acid. Keep this in an ice bath, as if you dont it may explode.

3. After five minutes, the tetryl is filtered and then washed in cold water.

4. The tetryl is now boiled in fresh water, with a little bit of baking soda. Repeat this until the tetryl passes a litmus paper test.

5. Filter the tetryl again and let it try. When detonated, it reacts much like TNT.

EASY EXPLOSIVES

I will list several of the recipes for low class explosives of black powder.

Black Powder #1

1. Potassium perchlorate: 69.2%
2. Sulfur 15.4%
3. Charcoal 15.4%

Black Powder #2

1. Potassium nitrate 37.5%
2. Sulfure 3.0%
3. Straw charcoal 18.0%

Black Powder #3

1. Barium nitrate 75.0%
2. Sulfur 12.5%
3. Charcoal 12.5%

Black powder is very nice and easy to make, but it is not as powerful as smokeless powder or as stable. That is why I prefer making smokeless powder, although it can be a bit more expensive.

Formulas for different colored smoke screen:

Black Smoke screen

Magnesium powder 19%
Hexacholroethate 60%
Naphthalene 21%

2 part sugar to 1 part potassium chlorate

White smoke screen

Zinc dust 66%
hexacholroethane: 33.33%

Yellow smoke screen

Potassium chlorate 25%
paranitraniline 50%
lactrose 25%

Red smoke screen

Potassium cholrate 20%
lactose 20%
paranitraniline red 20%

Ammonium Nitrate compounds

Ammonium nitrate is a very explosive compound in itself, and can be gotten in white crystalline form. This is the explosive which kept Germany in WWI. There are hundreds and hundreds of formulas for ammonium nitrate, all which are very powerful, but I will only list a couple:

Ammonium Nitrate Compound #1

Ammonium nitrate 38%
Potassium nitrate 35.5%
Ammonium oxalate 10.5%
sulfur clour 4.5%
charcoal 11.5%

Ammonium Nitrate Compound #2

Ammonium nitrate 94.5%
charcoal powder 2.5%
pyro powdered Al 3%

Ammonium Nitrate Compound #3

Ammonium nitrate 73%
barium nitrate 19%
potato starch 9%
potassium percholride 14.5%

Ammonium Nitrate Compound #4

Ammonium nitrate 76%
woodmeal 2%
T.N 16%

If you like gelatin dynamites such as plastique and plastic explosives, this is basically 75% nitro with 5% guncotton with 15% potassium nitrate and 5% woodmeal.

WHERE TO BUY CHEMICALS

Any of the chemicals needed for the above experiments can be bought at any chemical supply store. As you can see, sulfuric and nitric acid are necessary for many compounds. If you take chemistry, you can probably steal these from chem lab with no problem. Concentrated sulfuric acid is 18 molar, and concentrated nitric acid is 14 molar.

If you live in the bay area, I have found the following to be a very good source of chemicals:

ARK Chemical Distributors
3410 Pacheco Boulevard
Martinez California

It is located off Pacheco boulevard off of highway 680. If you are coming from the south and have just crossed highway 4, then turn left on the Pacheco boulevard exit. Continue down this road for a few miles. The building you are looking for is right across from the Shell Oil refinery and is about 3 stories high. It is hidden by a high fence and is behind the Clementine equipment rental.

I have found lots of cute girls working here, and they don't ask anby questions when you buy chemicals... and they have all the chemicals, supplies, and things you will need.

Don't blow yourselves up!