132 



CHEMISTRY. 



manufacture and the agents employed to bring 

 about the nitrification are similar. 



In the application of the two explosives, 

 however, there is a wide difference. Guncot- 

 ton is in a form which makes it conveniently 

 available ; but nitro-glycerine, being a liquid, 

 is difficult to use, and this fact led Nobel and 

 others to seek for some suitable vehicle to con- 

 tain the preparation. A silicious clay, called 

 Kieselguhr, which will absorb three times its 

 weight of the liquid, has been found the most 

 favorable vehicle, and dynamite consists of 

 about 75 per cent, of nitro-glycerine and 25 

 per cent, of this inert substance. In blasting- 

 gelatine the objection to employing an inert 

 material is overcome, the mass being explosive 

 throughout. " Blasting or explosive gelatine is 

 a mixture of nitro-glycerine and guncotton. 

 M. Nobel, to whom is due the credit of having 

 placed the valuable properties of nitro-glycer- 

 ine at the disposal of raining engineers, has 

 discovered, in pursuing further investigations, 

 that the liquid in question acts as a solvent 

 upon guncotton. Like a mixture of alcohol 

 and ether, nitro-glycerine is found to dissolve 

 nitro-cellulose, and form a description of col- 

 lodion, or, as M. Nobel terms it, gelatine. It 

 is not, of course, the highly explosive guncot- 

 ton that will thus dissolve, but that known as 

 photographer's pyroxiline, which does not con- 

 tain so much nitrogen. Military guncotton, 

 indeed, or tri-nitro-cellulose, to call it by its 

 chemical name, should not be soluble at all, 

 or at any rate only to a slight extent, if prop- 

 erly manufactured, and one of the tests to as- 

 certain if it is of good quality is in fact to treat 

 it with an alcohol-ether mixture to ascertain 

 how far it will dissolve. The soluble gun- 

 cotton, however, if not so highly nitrified, to 

 coin a term for our purpose, is still a sufficiently 

 explosive body, and this M. Nobel finds he can 

 dissolve to a greater extent in nitro-glycerine 

 than it is possible to do in alcohol and ether. 

 "Whereas the latter will dissolve no more than 

 4 or 5 per cent, of pyroxiline, and frequently 

 less than 2, nitro-glycerine has been found to 

 take up upward of 7 per cent. The operation of 

 dissolving is presumably done when the liquid 

 is warm, and the result is, as we have said, a 

 jellified mass, which has all the attributes of a 

 definite combination. There is no separation 

 of liquid from the mass, and cartridges may 

 be made by simply rolling up the material in 

 paper envelopes. ... In blasting - gelatine 

 there is no inert body, and the consequence is 

 that, weight for weight, the gelatine is superior 

 in its destructive action to dynamite. The lat- 

 ter, as we have seen, contains 75 per cent, of 

 nitro-glycerine, whereas blasting-gelatine con- 

 sists of from 90 to 93 per cent, of this liquid, and 

 from 7 to 10 per cent, of soluble guncotton. But 

 there exists another reason still why the deto- 

 nation of blasting-gelatine should be more en- 

 ergetic, namely, because the combustion of the 

 charge, from more perfect oxidation, is well- 

 nigh complete. . . . By converting the gelatine 



into a more solid body by the addition to it of 

 some 10 per cent, of military guncotton, or tri- 

 nitro-cellulose, Mr. Abel appears to have se- 

 cured a still more vigorous explosive, and one 

 besides that, by reason of its firmness, is more 

 convenient to handle than the soft and pliant 

 jelly. The destructive action of this modified 

 gelatine upon iron piates and heavy masses of 

 lead has been found greater than that of any 

 other form of nitro-glycerine or guncotton; 

 and there is no room for doubt that for torpe- 

 does and military mining, where the object is 

 to secure the greatest degree of violence, re- 

 gardless of consequences, the compound will 

 find valuable application." 



New Aniline Salts. Messrs. Beamer and 

 Clarke, of the University of Cincinnati, de- 

 scribe in the " American Chemical Journal " 

 several new salts of aniline which they have 

 lately obtained and partially examined. Ani- 

 line chlorate is formed by cautiously adding 

 chloric acid to an alcoholic solution of aniline, 

 and then evaporating under the receiver of an 

 air-pump. The salt quickly appears in the 

 shape of white, slender prisms about an inch 

 long. This compound is readily soluble in 

 alcohol and ether, but less so in water. On 

 exposure to air or to a gentle heat, its solu- 

 tions blacken and decompose. It detonates 

 sharply when struck, and explodes when 

 brought in contact with sulphuric acid or when 

 heated to a temperature of 75. Aniline per- 

 chlorate is prepared in the same way as the 

 preceding. Its crystals take the form of large 

 rhombic plates, are more stable than the chlo- 

 rate, and when dry are permanent in the 

 air. They detonate feebly when struck or 

 heated, and are decomposed by sulphuric acid. 

 Aniline iodate is obtained by adding aniline to 

 a solution of iodic acid. It is slightly soluble 

 in cold, but more soluble in hot water, and 

 still more so in boiling alcohol. All of its 

 solutions slowly decompose on standing, and 

 even the dry substance becomes discolored by 

 long exposure to the air. "When heated slowly 

 to 110 it blackens, but suffers no further change 

 even when the temperature is carried to 150. 

 By sudden heating, however, it explodes at 

 125 130. On percussion it detonates very 

 feebly, yielding a dense cloud of smoke, which 

 is light-brown by reflected and violet by trans- 

 mitted light. "When thrown upon sulphuric 

 acid, it instantaneously decomposes, yielding 

 the same dense vapors. Specific gravity, 1'48 

 at 13. Aniline fluohydr ate is formed by the 

 union of aniline and fluohydric acids, appears 

 in beautiful pearly scales, and is very soluble 

 in boiling alcohol. Aniline phthalate is formed 

 by the addition of aniline to an alcoholic solu- 

 tion of phthalic acid. Its melting-point is 145 

 146. Aniline monochloracetate is deposited 

 in a flocculent mass of white crystals on adding 

 aniline to a solution of monochloracetic acid. 

 Aniline dichloracetate, formed like the preced- 

 ing, crystallizes in long white prisms, which 

 melt at 122. Aniline trichloracetate is pre- 



