EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS AIMED BY NITRO-SUB STITUTION. This class consists of a series of compounds that are formed by treating certain hydrocarbons of the aromatic series, which are for the most part coal-tar products, with nitric acid; producing a new chemical compound which is relatively unstable, and contains elements that are capable of uniting at a high temperature to form stable gases. These explosives accomplish their purpose by a dissociation of the constituent elements of the compound, which then recombine into a variety of gaseous compounds. These ex plosives are sometimes called 'safety explosives.' and have considerable economic value, especially for blasting purposes, largely owing to the fact that they do not give off fumes of poisonous, gases, and have a high rending or expansive force. Among representative members of this class may be mentioned the following: Ammonites or Fa vier explosives, consisting of ammonium nitrate 88 parts, mixed into 12 parts of melted di-nitro naidith a lene ; bells e, consisting of ammonium nitrate 5 parts, and meta-di-nitrobenzine 1 part.
melted together, and potassium nitrate stirred into the mixture: Borlinetto powder, consisting of picric acid 10 parts. sodium nitrate 10 parts, and potassium chromate 814 parts; extralite, consisting of a mixture of ammonium nitrate, polassimn chlorate, and naphthalene; joreite, consisting of varying proportions of nitro-naph thakne (8 to 6 parts), nitro-phenol (16 to 30 parts). and sodium nitrate (76 to 64 parts) ; roburite, consisting of a mixture of ammonium nitrate and well purified chh:rinated di-nitro benzine; romite, consisting of a mixture of am monium nitrate, potassium chlorate. and naph thalene; sceurite, consisting of a of am monium nitrate and di-nitrobenzine: and l'olney powder, consisting of potassium nitrate, sulphur, and nitro-naphthalene. Many of these explosives pass into the Sprengel class.