Gun Cotton
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If only a small quantity is required---Mix 4 1/4 oz of pure dry Potassium Nitrate with 30 fl.dr of Sulphuric acid specific gravity 1.845 ish and stir into this mixture 120 grms of pure cotton. (The adding of Potassium Nitrate straight to the Sulphuric Acid saves you having to buy the Nitric Acid, which can be a bit of a pain sometimes).
As soon as saturation is complete,in about a minute,throw the cotton into a large container of water under the tap and leave the tap on, so that all the acid is washed out...THAT MEANS ALL..Test the water with Litmus paper to be sure.If the cotton is left slightly acidic it will explode at some later date; all by itself wouldn't that be fun.
Then squeeze it out into a towel till it feels quite dry and then finally dry it at about 180F.
Gun-Cotton differs widely from Gun-Powder in its properties requiring a much lower temperature for its ignition about 136F G-P about 250F Gun-Cotton burns so fast in the open that you could put some on your hand and light it, you wouldn't feel a thing.
It needs to be confined in a strong case if your fuse is a normal Black-Powder one but if you use a detonator ie/a Fulminate it will explode on its own.
Rapid as this combustion is, however, it occupies an appeciable time, as may be seen by igniting a train of loose gun-cotton, which takes several seconds to burn a few feet,giving at the same time a large flame. If gun-cotton be confined at the moment of ignition this flame is forced back into the mass.and by rapidly heating it brings it to the point at which combustion passes into explosion. Prior to 1868 it was always confined in strong cases, but in that year someone discovered that when a detonating fuse was exploded in contact with compressed gun-cotton,the unconfined mass at once exploded with ENORMOUS violence,and this discovery opened up an entirly new ballgame.
The products of the explosion are :
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon Monoxide
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Methane
It can be detonated buy hitting with a hammer on an anvil but only the portion under the hammer will explode with a loud report.
To recap,do make sure that all the acid is washed out..
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