Investigations have been made by Railton, Williamson, Hess and Schwab, Beckerhinn, and Sduer and Ador for the purpose of ascertaining the elementary composition and the constitution of nitroglycerine. They all agree in regarding it as a nitrate of glyceryl; but, whilst some consider that it is a tri-nitrate, others hold that it is a variable mixture of the tri-nitrate with di-nitrate and mononitrate. Their analyses are quite insufficient to establish either the one or the other conclusion, and have mainly been confined to estimations of the nitrogen. If we except a comparative estimation of the carbon with the nitrogen, there exist absolutely no determinations of the carbon or of the hydrogen. And, as the decomposition of nitroglycerine with potash has been shown to occur in a manner considerably different from that suggested by Railton and Williamson, the main reason in support of the constitution of nitroglycerine as a tri-nitrate has been removed. The authors of the present communication therefore believed that they were amply justified in making a fresh and more careful and complete analysis of the composition of nitroglycerine. Absolute determinations were made, not only of the nitrogen, but also of the carbon and hydrogen; and, in order to ascertain the uniformity in composition of nitroglycerine, the nitrogen of samples prepared by various methods was estimated. The nitroglycerine was both pure and thoroughly dried. For the determination of the nitrogen, modifications of Dumas's method and of Schloesing's method were employed. The carbon and hydrogen were estimated by a modification of Liebig's method. Every precaution was taken to insure that the results obtained should be correct. The average of the determinations gave 15 · 91 per cent, of carbon, 2 · 49 per cent, of hydrogen, and 18 · 05 per cent. (Dumas) or 18 · 14 per cent. (Schloesing) of nitrogen. Theoretically nitroglycerine, regarded as the tri-nitrate of glyceryl, contains 15 · 86 per cent, of carbon, 2 · 20 per cent, of hydrogen, and 18 · 50 per cent, of nitrogen. The quantities obtained by experiment agree so closely with the theoretical quantities that they may be regarded as affording proof that nitroglycerine is, in reality, the tri-nitrate of glyceryl. The authors also conclude, from the unvarying amount of nitrogen obtainable from variously prepared specimens of nitroglycerine, including one from Nobel's dynamite, that nitroglycerine is constant in composition and does not contain any of the lower nitrates of glyceryl, unless very imperfectly washed.
Flame speeds in the “inflammation” and “detonation” of moist carbonic oxide-oxygen mixtures
