Blasting gelatin

The explosive gelatine ( explosive rubber) is one of the strongest commercial explosives and belongs to the dynamite explosives . The blasting gelatine consists of glycerin trinitrate ("nitroglycerin") and 6–8% collodion wool .

First produced by Alfred Nobel in 1876 to increase the handling safety of glycerol trinitrate, it is more powerful than ordinary dynamite , which contains around 25% inert diatomite .

The detonation speed of the blasting gelatine is around 8,000 m / s; however, blasting gelatine ages quickly, which also greatly reduces the detonation speed.

The blasting gelatine forms a gelatine-like , elastic , translucent, pale yellow colored mass with the consistency of a strong brawn, can be easily bent, cut with a knife and does not allow glycerol trinitrate to escape even under the strongest pressure .

The addition of a little camphor (4%) makes it highly insensitive to mechanical effects, even to bullets. When heated, blasting gelatine behaves similar to normal dynamite. On its own, explosive gelatine explodes when heated rapidly at a temperature of around 240 ° C; mixed with camphor, it cannot be made to explode by slowly heating it. Blasting gelatine is so insensitive to water that it can be stored under water until it is used.

It is only used in exceptional cases.

After the First World War , instead of collodion wool, some of the still larger amounts of raw powder mass were used to produce blasting gelatine .

Individual evidence

^ Brockhaus ABC Chemie , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag Leipzig 1965, pp. 1323-1324.
^ Rudolf Meyer: Explosivstoffe , VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, 1985, 6th edition, p. 275, ISBN 3-527-26297-0 .
↑ Dr. Phokion Naoúm: Nitroglycerin and nitroglycerin explosives (Dynamite) , Springer Verlag , Berlin / Heidelberg 1924.

Web links

Alfred Nobel and the discovery of dynamite with special consideration of ethical concerns in natural science (accessed on May 15, 2020)
On explosions, artillery and explosives (accessed May 15, 2020)
On the toxicology of military-specific explosives and their decomposition products (accessed on May 15, 2020)
Former explosives specialist became versatile technology group (accessed on May 15, 2020)
Invention of the blasting gelatine (accessed on May 15, 2020)

[ABC_Chemie-1] Brockhaus ABC Chemie , VEB FA Brockhaus Verlag Leipzig 1965, pp. 1323-1324.

[Meyer-2] Rudolf Meyer: Explosivstoffe , VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, 1985, 6th edition, p. 275, ISBN 3-527-26297-0 .

[3] Dr. Phokion Naoúm: Nitroglycerin and nitroglycerin explosives (Dynamite) , Springer Verlag , Berlin / Heidelberg 1924.