NITROGEN BODIES OF MODERN CHEMISTRY. 207 



We shall have the compound represented in Fig. 11 — 



Fig. 11. Fig. 12. 



OOOOOOO CO CO 



OC#COCO CO CO 



CO 

 CO 



Fig. 12 represents the molecules of water extracted. 

 (In this again) we have fulminate of mercury and water. Finally, if in 

 the above nitro-acetonitryl (N'" C./'" H/ N'" O2") we substitute uitryl for 

 the two hydrogen atoms, we obtain tri-uitro-acetonitryl — 



Fig. 13. 



CXX) 



cocoo 



QCOCO 

 ^CQO ceo 



a substance which forms crystals transparent as water, resembling 

 naphthaline, and which on exposure to air emits a disagreeable odor, a 

 body which liquifies at 45° and at 120° explodes with violence, rend- 

 ing its way through all obstacles. Now, whence arises this explosive 

 force of the nitrogen bodies ? 



It comes in this wise: from the substitution of oxygen for hydrogen 

 there occurs so intimate a blending of combustibles and supporters of 

 combustion that on contact with a spark, on the signal given for decom- 

 position, the whole mass with tempest swiftness, so to speak, burns up 

 at once. 



At the instant of combustion this solid substance is resolved into 

 elastic fluids tending to expand, and, moreover, by reason of the 

 augmented temperature attendant on the process of decomposition 

 already expanded to a remarkable degree, and therefore tilling a space 

 many hundred times greater than before. If, by raising its temperature 

 to 120° I should cause the decomposition of this body in the glass tube, 

 in which, to prevent accidents, it is usually liquefied, there would result 

 in place of this small quantity a volume hundreds of times larger than 

 the tnbe; its cohesion being overcome, the glass would be shattered, and, 

 with a report like that of fire-arms, the gas would escape into the air. 



The efl'ect of the common explosive gas depends on the intimate 

 blending of the inflammatory oxygen with the combustible hydrogen. 



