Part 7

Limit charge 20 Power (swing of ballistic pendulum) 2·74

=BENTAL COAL POWDER.=--An American coal-mine explosive on the Permissible List. It is an ammonium nitrate explosive.

=BITUMINITE.=--There are several coal-mine explosives of this name on the American Permissible List. Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 8 L.F. are nitroglycerine explosives. No. 5 is an ammonium nitrate explosive.

=BLACK DIAMOND.=--There are several coal-mine explosives of this name on the American Permissible List. Nos. 2A, 3A and 6 L.F. are nitroglycerine explosives, whereas Nos. 5, 7 and 8 are ammonium nitrate explosives.

=BLACK POWDER= is a name for ordinary gunpowder, a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal.

=BLASTINE= is a high explosive having approximately the composition--

Ammonium perchlorate 60 Sodium nitrate 23 Dinitro-toluene 11 Paraffin wax 6

As the sodium nitrate in the above is not equivalent to the ammonium perchlorate, part of the chlorine is given off in the form of the poisonous gas, hydrogen chloride (hydrochloric acid).

=BLASTING GELATINE.=--Nitroglycerine, stiffened by having collodion cotton dissolved in it. Discovered by Nobel in 1875. It contains about--

Nitroglycerine 93 Collodion cotton 7

and also often a fraction of a percentage of calcium or magnesium carbonate to increase its stability. This is the most powerful of all the explosives in common use.

=BOBBINITE.=--The only explosive of the gunpowder class the use of which is permitted in coal mines in England. In most foreign countries explosives of this class are not allowed to be used in them at all. The permission is only temporary, but has been extended to the end of 1920, and is restricted to mines that are not gassy or dangerous from coal dust. There are two definitions, but the second is the one that is generally manufactured apparently--

First. Second. Potassium nitrate 63·5 65 Charcoal 18·5 20 Sulphur 2 2 Sulphates of ammonium and copper 15 -- Rice or maize starch -- 9 Paraffin wax -- 3 Moisture 1 1

More than a million pounds of this explosive are used in coal mines every year. It shatters the coal less than high explosives do.

=BOMLIT.=--A German potassium perchlorate blasting explosive made by Wolff et Cie. at Walsrode. It contains also ammonium nitrate, trinitro-toluene and guncotton. Other ingredients that may be present are potassium and sodium nitrates, starch meal, vaseline, naphthalene and other hydrocarbons, charcoal and castor oil.

=BRITONITE.=--A coal-mine explosive of the Carbonite type, made by the British Explosives Syndicate, Ltd., Pitsea. The original composition passed the Woolwich Test and was on the list of Permitted Explosives, but on the introduction of the Rotherham Test it became necessary to add ammonium oxalate or sodium chloride. Nos. 2 and 3 were on the Permitted List, but have now been repealed.

No. 2. No. 3. Date of Permit 1-9-13 28-1-15 Nitroglycerine 26 24 24·5 Sodium nitrate -- -- 28 Potassium nitrate 32·7 30 -- Wood meal 41 38 35·5 Sodium carbonate 0·3 -- -- Ammonium oxalate -- 8 -- Sodium chloride -- -- 12

Limit charge -- 24 24 oz. Power (swing of ballistic pendulum) -- 2·26 2·17”

=BROWN POWDER.= See =COCOA POWDER=.

=BRUGÈRE’S POWDER= consisted of--

Ammonium picrate 54 Potassium nitrate 46

It was stated to give good results in the Chassepôt rifle, but picrate mixtures are liable to detonate, and are therefore dangerous to use as propellants.

=BULL DOG= Gunpowder Pellets were used in coal mines. They contained the same constituents as Bobbinite, which superseded them, but in different proportions.

Explosifs =C= were mixtures of ammonium cresylate with ammonium or sodium nitrate. They were made in France at one time, but their manufacture was dropped, as they were more expensive to make than Grisounite, and no more powerful.

=CAHUECIT.=--This was invented in the ’seventies of the last century by R. Cahuc, and was manufactured at Dartford in Kent under the name of Safety Blasting Powder or Carboazotine. It is still made in Germany. The ingredients are--

English. German. Potassium nitrate 64 70 Sulphur flowers 12 12 Lampblack or soot 7 8 Bark or wood pulp 17 10

to which are added a few per cent. of sulphate of iron. The incorporation is carried out with the assistance of a considerable quantity of water, which is afterwards evaporated off. The mixing is not very thorough. The explosive is a comparatively mild one, but is used sometimes for blasting basalt. In the German explosive the potassium nitrate may be replaced by the corresponding sodium salt.

=AMMONCAHUECIT.=--In this explosive the potassium nitrate is replaced mainly or wholly by ammonium nitrate, and it contains not more than 15 per cent. of trinitro-toluene or trinitro-naphthalene or other nitro-body.