Q&A: Liquid explosives

BBC News ^ | 08/10/06 | BBC News

[Heyworth]

When I hear of liquid explosives, I think of nitroglycerin and the episode of Bonanza where they had to transport a wagon load of it across the mountains

Check out a French movie from the 1950s called "Wages of Fear"--a diverse group of men on the run for various reasons (seen in flashback) are in some godforsaken jungle town in South America (I think). A hundred miles away, there's an oil well explosion and they need nitro to blow it out. These guys are hired to drive a caravan of trucks containing nitro through jungles and over mountains. They only need one to get through...

It was also remade as "Sorcerer" in the late 1970s; Roy Scheider starring, William Friedkin directing, and a great soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. One of those rare remakes that might be better than the original, although it's debatable (by my friends, at least).

Interestingly, I think both have a Muslim terrorist among the "men on the run"--an Algerian in the first one and a Palestinian in the remake.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

If you were to remove the covering on a couple feet of "det cord" exposing the PETN, it could be dissolved in acetone. After adding a teaspoon or so of mineral oil (needed to keep the crystals tiny when the solvent evaporates) you could place sheets of newspaper in the liquid mixture, soaking them throughly. Carefully remove and dry the sheets and refold the paper. A daily like the New York Times would hold enough PETN to equal 3 sticks of dynamite. The detonator remains problematical.

The chemical sniffers will find the paper explosive w/ no problem.

Regards,
GtG

[tacticalogic]

Wasn't Astrolite sold as a commercial blasting agent? Seems like awfully problematic stuff for commercial use.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Dumb writer never heard of nitroglycerin.

The ORIGINAL "liquid explosive" - and it looks just like water.

Then again ----- It is "somewhat" likely to go off walking through the terminal.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Wasn't Astrolite sold as a commercial blasting agent?

Not that I'm aware of.

Astrolites' only claim to fame is it has the highest detonation velocity. Commercial explosives really don't need to be all that fast, cheap yes if you are using them by the ton like ANFO. There are other factors that go into a choice of blasting agent like the flame temperature of the decomposition products. It may sound odd but "cooler" explosives find use in mining because they allow blasting in gassy or dusty conditions. The azide in your airbag generates a great volume of nitrogen and very little heat when it detonates to deploy the bag.

Regards,
GtG

[tortoise]

After adding a teaspoon or so of mineral oil (needed to keep the crystals tiny when the solvent evaporates) you could place sheets of newspaper in the liquid mixture, soaking them throughly. Carefully remove and dry the sheets and refold the paper.

Many moons ago, we did something similar using a fairly concentrated potassium chlorate solution. The best use we found for the impregnated paper was starting charcoal briquets. Put some sheets of the stuff underneath your charcoal and light, preferably from a distance. A blinding second later, all the coals would be nicely started and the paper gone.

Properly confined with a detonator and that paper could probably have done some damage. Chlorate was used as the oxidizer in some trench mortar detonables in WWI.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Put some sheets of the stuff underneath your charcoal and light, preferably from a distance.

That sounds a bit like the engineering professor who stages a grill cook out every summer. He demonstrates the properties of liquid oxygen by pouring a pail full of LOX into a charcoal grill which has one burning coal atop a pile of cold charcoal. He really cooks the grill, in about ten seconds. The entire load of charcoal disappears in a flash along with most of the grill. Very impressive videos.

Regards,
GtG

[Doohickey]

Guess reporters for the Beeb don't watch many old westerns.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

http://www.doeblitz.net/ghg/

Check it out, this guy is really nuts, 3 gallons of LOX and 40 pounds of charcoal in three seconds.

Regards,
GtG

[EODGUY]

Hi RAC,

You're right. The stability of pure nitro is nebulous at best. Movement could cause it to go "high order", which would definitely spoil the entire day for whoever was carrying it !


EODGUY

[Kiss Me Hardy]

I've carried a fountain pen for years (can't take good shorthand with a ballpoint) and I've never been stopped or even given a second glance. That's surprising, now that I think of it, because one of my favorite pens is an all-metal, hex-barrel Rotring Newton

http://www.rotring.de/www.rotring.com/products/writing/c_newton.html

Think I'll pack my favorite pens in my checked luggage from now on. Security checks have already cost my a pocket knife and a Zippo that I'd owned for more than 30 years.

[PureSolace]

By banning every single thing on a flight... doesn't that mean the Terrorists have won?

What next? Cutting open then human body and implanting explosives in the abdomen? Then detonating said explosives? We'll have to ban people next! Then no one will fly. This is ridiculous and totaly out of control. How many more freedoms must we give up because of a bunch of misguided rock worshipers?