Dynamite Made from Corn (Jul, 1936)
Filed under: Chemistry — @ 12:00 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1936
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1936
| Buy on Ebay
Better not let the TSA see this or they’ll ban corn from all flights.
Dynamite Made from Corn
Production of a highly explosive dynamite from corn is one of the latest developments of the chemical laboratory. It is the result of the recent discovery at the University of Iowa of an inexpensive method of extracting inositol, a sugarlike substance, from corn. Inositol is a non-explosive form of alcohol but when nitrated becomes a powerful solid explosive. It can be produced from the waste by-products of the manufacture of cornstarch.
“Notes on U.S. Ordnance Volume II” mentions grenades useing “nitrostarch”. This may have been it.
Comment by KHarn — March 9, 2008 @ 12:54 pm