Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Manufacturing Industries. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] K. Åmark - 9. Chemical Industries. By Alf. Larson
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436
vii. manufacturing industries.
In the meantime, the manufacture of explosives has entered upon a new
phase; the year 1864 marks a new epoch in the technics of explosives, for
it was in that year that Alfred Nobel established the Vinterviken dyna^
mite factory, the oldest of its kind in the world. The effective
ingredient of dynamite is nitro-glycerin, and this substance, which is obtained
by treating glycerin with a mixture of strong nitric and sulphuric acids,
is much cheaper and more powerful than ordinary gunpowder. By
mixing nitro-glycerin with infusorial earth, a solid explosive is obtained,
which is less dangerous to handle, and this it is which is called dynamite.
It is also possible to combine nitro-glycerin with other explosive
substances and thus to obtain explosives with slightly varying qualities, suitable
for various purposes. Such combinations are called, for instance, sebastin©
and ammoniac-gunpowder. Another very powerful explosive is gun-cotton
or nitro-cellulose, which is obtained by immersing cotton in a mixture of
strong nitric and sulphuric acids. It is also possible to combine
nitrocellulose and nitro-glycerin; the former then swells, or becomes
gelatinized, in the nitro-glycerin. A gelatinized composition of this nature is
called blasting gelantin; if the gelatinizing process is carried out in a
suitable manner, the composition, after being dried, can be compressed into
a horny, elastic substance, which is less dangerous than, but otherwise
quite as effective as, gun-cotton.
Gelatinized and compressed gun-cotton is employed in the production
of smokeless, or, more properly speaking, almost smokeless, kinds of
powder. The fact of the matter is that the products of combustion of
nitroglycerin and gun-cotton consist solely of colourless gases, which fact is of
immense importance, particularly in warfare. Smokeless powder was
introduced into the Swedish army in 1890. The first variety, known as
apyrite, was manufactured by the Swede Skoglund, but subsequently the
so-called Troisdorf powder, called after the German factory at Troisdorf,
was adopted for the army and is manufactured on a large scale at the
State powder factory of Åker. This powder consists solely of gun-cotton,
which has been gelatinized with a mixture of alcohol and ether; it occurs
in the form of small glittering scales. For cannon and torpedoes, where a
more powerful effect is required, a gelatinized mixture of nitro-cellulose
and nitro-glycerin is used, called after its inventor Nobel powder or
ballistite.
It is possible to say without exaggeration that Sweden has contributed
in a very extraordinary degree to the development of the technics of
explosives, and it has even been termed "the classic land of the modern
technics of explosives". Besides Alfred Nobel’s inventions of dynamite and
Nobel powder, both of which have been epoch-making, the former as a
blasting agent, the latter as a powder for war purposes, there are several
other explosives, both powerful and almost free from danger in use, which
trace their origin from Sweden. It will be sufficient to mention bellite (with
its improvement bellona), invented,; by C. Lamm, principally consisting of
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