This book is included in the Self Reliance Firearms & Weaponry section.
SSRsi Disclaimer & Note on Text:
This text was found on the internet. The author is unknown. The veracity of the information is unknown - and therefore suspect.
SSRsi does not advocate the home preparation of any form of propellant, explosive, or other pyrotechnics. Attempting to do so without specialized training, equipment and facilities will almost certainly result in serious injury to persons and property.
Explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants are generally regulated by law and their manufacture is usually frowned upon (if not outright prohibited) by law enforcement.
This text is presented by SSRsi for information purposes only.
Do not attempt to duplicate the processes described herein.
General Safety The first rule of caution is to note that compositions are extremely hazardous when subjected to heat, friction, sparks, static electricity, or a sharp blow. Mixing or manufacturing flash compositions is possibly more dangerous than attempting to manufacture black powder, improvised plastic or other nitrate-type explosives. Using potassium chlorate formulas with or without sulphur are the most dangerous and are highly unstable. The amateur technician should fully realize the violence, high energy and catastrophic results of an accidental flash powder explosion. There has been, in recent times, accidental combustions of these compositions - legal and illegal - which resulted in loss of life and devastating explosions. Complacency, carelessness, forgetfulness, or blind trust that "it has never happened to me," will assist you in getting in the category of accidental ignition of your composition. A one-pound slightly contained flash mixture placed in a small shed-type building, detonated electrically, will cause the following: 1) Total disappearance of the shed 2) A 50 ft. Fireball 3) Pieces of the shed blown, like missiles, for several hundred feet, and 4) A shock wave that will break some windows at 1,000 ft. Flash powders consist of finely ground materials of aluminum, magnesium or magnalium. Flash powders, in some cases, actually increase the hazard of other more dangerous mixtures. The introduction of moisture may cause magnesium powders to spontaneously combust. Aluminum powder when burning has a tremendously energetic reaction. On a unit-for-unit basis, very few fuels approach aluminum for heat or energy of combustion. An important factor to remember is time vs. unit combustion. Power is energy per unit time. A given amount of gasoline needed to run a 1 h.p. engine for 1/2 hour would produce a 2000 h.p. explosion, if burned in 1 second, or a 2 MILLION h.p. explosion if burned in 1/1,000 of a second. Flash compositions consume their fuel in thousandths and hundredths of a second. Since the main energy factor in flash compositions is aluminum, most oxidizers have little effect on the energy output of the composition, but they have different chemical properties and can cause different problems. All aluminum metal exposed to air or moisture is quickly coated with a tough layer of aluminum oxide. If this coating did not adhere strongly to the metal, aluminum itself (as a metal) would be worthless - or even dangerous. Aluminum is not found in nature as raw aluminum. It takes a great deal of mining, liquid baths, and electrical energy to produce "raw" aluminum ingots. Do not use non-traditional booster materials with flash mixtures, such as HDP, TNT, Dynamite, Kine-Pac, or Astrolite B or any improvised nitrate or plastic mixtures. A Great deal of additional research must be done in this area to safely assume that these formulas can be used or manufactured in a less hazardous environment. The same formulas mixed by different people in different locations will NOT provide the same safety factor. What has occurred for one experimenter time-and-again may result in an accidental explosion the first time someone else tries to blend the composition. You should understand that there are so many variables, unknowns, and different combinations of these variables for the same formula - any of which may result in disaster. Finely blended flash formulas of the purest and best chemicals have been tested and found to have "TNT" equivalence of 75% for an air blast. Aluminum powder has an oxide layer coating on the surface. When this oxide coating is disturbed by friction, or by combining crystalline-dense additives to your composition, it greatly increases the possibility of the mixture to decompose immediately (spontaneously ignite/explode). Table of Contents General Safety Chemical Analysis Formulas Safety recautions Preparation and Manufacturing Technical Data Salute Construction List of Suppliers Legal Implications Notes End of Preview RETURN to Main Titles Index or Self Reliance Firearms & Weaponry
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