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.

---------Exodus--------