Part 8

The brand labelled “Fram” contains ammonium nitrate, not more than 25 per cent. of trinitro-toluene gelatinised with 4 per cent. collodion cotton, wood meal or other vegetable meal and neutral stable salts. The brand “Indra” is similar, except that it contains also not more than 10 per cent. potassium nitrate, and the percentage of trinitro-toluene may be raised to 20.

=CAMBRITE= is a coal-mine explosive of the Carbonite type made by Nobels at Ardeer. It consists practically of Nobel Carbonite, to which 8 per cent. of a cooling agent has been added. Unlike most of the explosives on the old Permitted List, it passed the Rotherham Test with practically no alteration--

Cambrite. No. 2. Date of Permit 1-9-13 1-4-15

Nitroglycerine 23 23 Barium nitrate 4 4 Potassium nitrate 27·5 27·5 Wood meal 37·2 37 Calcium carbonate 0·3 0·5 Ammonium oxalate 8 -- Potassium chloride -- 8

Limit charge 30 24 oz. Power (swing of ballistic pendulum) 1·98 2·00”

Only No. 2 is now on the Permitted List.

=CAMERON MINE POWDER.=--There are a number of coal-mine explosives of this name on the American Permissible List. Nos. 1A, 2A and 2A LF are ammonium nitrate explosives, whereas Nos. 3A and 5A are nitroglycerine explosives.

=*CANNONITE= was a smokeless powder made by a firm called the War and Sporting Smokeless Powder Syndicate, Ltd. It consisted of about 86 per cent. of nitrocellulose mostly insoluble in ether-alcohol, and a few per cent. of barium nitrate, together with small quantities of some of the following: potassium nitrate, charcoal, lampblack, vaseline, rosin, stearine, dinitro-benzene, trinitro-toluene, potassium ferro-cyanide, graphite. For shot-guns the powder was of the forty-two grain type, dense and gelatinised. The rifle powder was colloidal. These powders were made in the ’nineties of the last century.

=CARBITE D’ABLON= is a sort of Carbonite made in France--

Nitroglycerine 26 Potassium nitrate 33 Wood meal or flour 41

=CARBOAZOTINE.= See =CAHUECIT=.

=CARBO-DYNAMITE= was an explosive patented by W. D. Borland. It differed from ordinary dynamite in that the nitroglycerine was absorbed in cork charcoal instead of kieselguhr. One part of the charcoal sufficed to absorb nine parts of nitroglycerine.

=CARBONITE= (or Karbonit) was one of the earliest and one of the most successful coal-mine explosives. It was first made by Bichel and Schmidt at Schlebusch in Germany in 1885, and after some modifications gave satisfactory results at the Neunkirchen testing station in 1887. It contains about 26 per cent. of nitroglycerine, 33 per cent. of a nitrate, and 40 per cent. of wood meal or starch flour, and small quantities of other substances. Nobel Carbonite passed the Woolwich Test and had the composition--

Nitroglycerine 26 Barium nitrate 4 Potassium nitrate 29 Wood meal 40·5 “Sulphuretted benzol” 0·25 Sodium and calcium carbonates 0·25

The Carbonite made at the works of the Carbonite Syndicate at Schlebusch, and imported into Great Britain, was practically the same as this, but they also made another explosive which passed the Woolwich Test, and contained 35 per cent. of nitroglycerine gelatinised with nitrocotton, and smaller proportions of nitrates and wood meal than are given above: this was called Extra-Carbonite. They have also made explosives to numerous modifications of this formula for use on the Continent. The essential feature of all of them is that they contain so much of the combustible constituents, such as wood meal, that most of the carbon appears in the products of explosion as carbon monoxide, and the temperature of the gases is consequently low.

Nobels at Ardeer also made a low freezing explosive in which part of the nitroglycerine was replaced by a nitro-compound. This was called Arctic Carbonite--

Nitroglycerine 15·5 Nitro-hydrocarbon 10·5 Potassium nitrate 42 Wood meal 31·7 Calcium carbonate 0·3

Various manufacturers have made explosives of the type of Carbonite and placed them on the market under different names, such as Tutol, Kolax, Kohlen-Carbonite, Minite and Colinite. These, however, do not pass the Rotherham Test for Permitted Explosives, unless ammonium oxalate or other cooling agent be added, as in the case of Cambrite, Super-Kolax and Britonite No. 2.

On the Continent, explosives similar to Arctic Carbonite have been produced under the names Antigel de Sûreté and Ingélite.

There are several Carbonites on the American Permissible List. Of these Nos. 1 to 4 are in order of diminishing violence: Nos. 5 and 6 are low freezing varieties. There are also a number of other explosives of the Carbonite type on the List.

Ammonkarbonit is a German coal-mine explosive, containing about 80 per cent. of ammonium nitrate and 4 per cent. of blasting gelatine, together with 5 or 10 per cent. of potassium nitrate, and a combustible such as flour, starch or coal dust. Sodium or potassium chloride may be added as a cooling agent. It has been used for blasting clay.

Gelatine-Karbonit is a Carbonite containing ammonium nitrate, and a considerable proportion of nitroglycerine gelatinised with collodion cotton.

Halokarbonit is similar to Ammonkarbonit, except that a considerable proportion of the ammonium nitrate is replaced by other nitrates.

=CARLSONITE= was the first ammonium perchlorate explosive submitted to H.M. Inspectors of Explosives. It was proposed in 1898 by Carlson of Stockholm, and some of the mixtures were reported on favourably, but no licence was ever taken out in the United Kingdom for this explosive.

=C.E.= (Composition Exploding) is the same as Tetryl.

=CELTITE= was a coal-mine explosive made by Dr. R. Nahnsen & Co., Hamburg, and formerly permitted for use in British coal mines, having passed the Woolwich Test.

Nitroglycerine 57 Nitrocotton 3 Potassium nitrate 19 Wood meal 9 Ammonium oxalate 12

It was also called Zeltit.