Part 2 (1/2)

_MANUFACTURE OF NITRO-GLYCERINE_

Properties of Nitro-Glycerine--Manufacture of Nitro-Glycerine--Nitration-- The Nathan Nitrator--Separation--Filtering and Washi+ng--The Waste Acids-- Treatment of the Waste Acid from the Manufacture of Nitro-Glycerine and Gun-Cotton

~Properties of Nitro-Glycerine~--Nitro-glycerol is a heavy oily liquid of specific gravity 16 at 15 C, and when quite pure is colourless The commercial product is a pale straw yellow, but variesto the purity of the materials used in its manufacture It is insoluble in water, crystallises at 105 C, but different commercial samples behave very differently in this respect, and minute ilycerol[A] melts at about 12 C, but requires to be exposed to this teravity of the solid form is 1735 at +10 C; it contracts one-twelfth of its voluives the specific heat as 04248 between the teives the boiling point as above 200

[Footnote A: Di-nitro-lycerine up to 20 per cent, is said to prevent its freezing]

[Footnote B: _Isb, Chelycerine has a sweet taste, and causes great depression and vertigo It is soluble in ether, chloroforlacial acetic acid, and nitro-benzene, in 175 part of methylated spirit, very nearly insoluble in water, and practically insoluble in carbon bisulphide Its forht 227 When pure, it th of time without decomposition Berthelot kept a sample for ten years, and Mr G M'Roberts, of the Ardeer Factory, for nine years, without their showing signs of decomposition; but if it should contain the smallest trace of free acid, decoenerally show itself by the forreen ring upon the surface of liquid nitro-glycerine Sunlight will often cause it to explode; in fact, a bucket containing solycerine, and had been left standing in the sun, has in our experience been known to explode with considerable force Nitro-glycerine when pure is quite stable at ordinary temperatures, and samples have been kept for years without any trace of decomposition It is very susceptible to heat, and even when quite pure will not stand a teer period than a few hours, without undergoing decomposition Up to a temperature of 45 C, however, properly ed allycerine is as follows:--

Found Theory for C_{3}H_{5}(N0_{2})_{3}

Carbon 1562 1586 per cent

Hydrogen 240 220 ”

Nitrogen 1790 1850 ”

Oxygen6344 ”

The above analysis is by Beckerheien as 1835 to 1054 per cent by Dumas'percentages as high as 1846 by the use of Lunge's nitrometer The deco equation--

2C_{3}H_{5}(NO_{3})_{3} = 6CO_{2} + 5H_{2}O + 6N + O;

that is, it contains an excess of 352 per cent of oxygen above that required for corms would be converted into--

Carbonic Acid (CO_{2}) 5815 per cent

Water 1983 ”

Oxygen 352 per cent

Nitrogen 1850 ”

The voluases produced at 0 and 760 mm, calculated fro taken as gaseous Nitro-glycerine is decouhr dynaases are allowed to escape freely under a pressure nearly equal to that of the atmosphere Sarrau and Vieille obtained under these conditions, for 100 voluas--

NO 482 per cent

CO 359 ”

CO_{2} 127 ”

H 16 per cent

N 13 ”

CH_{4} 03 ”

These conditions are sinited by the cap, burns away slowly under a low pressure (ie, a ineering and Mining Journal_, 1892) says, that in practice nitro-glycerine vapour, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide, are also produced as the result of detonation, but he attributes their forlycerine explodes very violently by concussion It may be burned in an open vessel, but if heated above 250 C it explodes Professor CE

Munroe gives the firing point as 2O3-2O5 C, and L de Bruyn[A] states its boiling point as 185 He used the apparatus devised by Horsley The heat of forlycerine, as deduced frouinine, is 432 calories for 1 grrlycerine the heat of total coeable ter to Dr WH Perkin, FRS,[B] the ylcerine is 5,407, and that of tri-methylene nitrate, 4769 (diff = 638) Dr Perkin says: ”Had nitro-glycerine contained its nitrogen in any other coht if its constitution had been represented as C_{3}H_{2}(NO_{2})_{3}(OH)_{3}, the rotation when compared with propyl nitrate (4085) would be abnormal”

[Footnote A: _Jour Soc Chem Ind_, June 1896, p 471]

[Footnote B: _Jour Chem Soc_, WH Perkin, 1889, p 726]

The solubility of nitro-glycerine in various solvents has been investigated by AH Elliot; his results may be summarised as follows:--