Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Basic Procedures
Chapter 3: Doing the Work
Chapter 4: Improvised Detonation Caps
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Ammonium Nitrate
Chapter 3: Nitro Methane
Chapter 4: Home Manufacture of C-4
Chapter 5: The Finished Product
Chapter 6: Conclusion
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WARNING: Ragnar Benson is a weapon fetischist, and do not always know what
he is talking about. The making of "C-4" DOES produce a good compound,
safe and usable for experiments, but is not real C-4. His "Improvised detonation
cap" procedures should NOT be carried out. They are too downright dangerous.
//Thallion 960824
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INTRODUCTION
The American Civil War had been over
for only two years in 1867 when an otherwise obscure Swedish chemist discovered
that mixing capricious, powerful, and dangerously unstable nitroglycerin
oil with inert, otherwise innocuous, diatomaceous earth produced a reasonably
stable material of immense benefit to mankind. The world named the stuff
dynamite.
A highly unpredictable substance, nitroglycerin had been around since its discovery by Ascanio Sobrero, a ho-hum Italian chemistry professor who, in 1846, treated common glycerin with nitric acid. To produce an explosive, the challenges were to make the explosive substance pure enough so as not to self-detonate on the shelf and to stabilize it to the point that the explosive could be transported safely to the work site, where it could be detonated on command. Because of its vastly superior explosive qualities vis-a-vis black powder, heroic attempts were made to use raw nitroglycerin oil for mining and, to a limited extent, for various uses during the American Civil War.
The substance, however, had a maddening habit of going off prematurely without immediate, apparent cause other than a slight warming of the weather, and of being so sluggish at temperatures under 55øF that it could not be detonated under any circumstances. Alfred Nobel's fortuitous mixture, in addition to numerous tangential discoveries he also made in the field of explosives engineering, led to the technological shifts that, in economic terms, were of equal importance to the power loom, iron plow, or even the steam engine. In an economy that increasingly eschews the use of dynamite, a surprising 50 million pounds were used in the United States as late as 1985.
At this point, a good definiffon is in order. All chemical explosives are divided into two classes, high and low. Low explosives include black blasting powder of various types, chlorate powder, and other similar products that burn rather than detonate. Low explosives are seldom used to do commercial blasting. High explosives decompose with high reaction rates having significant pressures. Conversion from solid to gaseous state is almost instantaneous. As a result, their shattering force is great. High explosives are used whenever large amounts of force are required. Dynamite is the best, most common example of a high explosive. Without the shocking, tearing effect that is at least twenty times as great as that of dynamite's weak sister (black powder), societies and cultures cannot build roads, bore tunnels, extract minerals from deep in the earth, dear harbors, build railroad beds, or even perform such mundane tasks as laying sewer lines, digging foundation trenches, or excavating holes for outhouses.
Eight ounces of high-tech dynamite stores the potential of about 600,000 foot-Pounds of energy. Properly harnessed and directed, that is enough to throw a ten-pound projectile eleven miles, or represents the total muzzle energy of two hundred 30.06 rounds fired simultaneously. There is a modem tendency to dismiss the productive use of dynamite as unimportant in our society. From some perspectives, this assumption is understandable. Substitutes such as ammonium nitrate and others have taken over much of the market for commercial, dynamite-type explosives. In another regard, the older high explosives have been dwarfed into obscurity by their super-powerful nuclear relatives. The Hiroshima bomb, for instance, contained in a cylinder ten feet long by little more than two feet in diameter, the explosive equivalent of a single stick of dynamite twelve yards in diameter and one hundred yards long. A relatively small five-megaton nuclear weapon has the explosive equivalent of a fifty-story building covering a city block and crammed full of dynamite. With competition like this, it is little wonder Americans forget about the role dynamite plays in our economy. Yet it is still true today that explosives use acts as a lagging indicator of economic activity. When the economy is buoyant, mines are busy, roads are being built, and airfields leveled. Explosives consumption is up. When the economy is in the doldrums, the line on the graph plotting consumption of powder angles sharply down. By 1875, Alfred Nobel perfected the principle of initial ignition, wherein he used a small, protected charge of easily degraded black powder to detonate a more stable main charge comprised of high explosives. We use the concept every time we set up a cap and fuze to produce a detonating stick. The concept is revolutionary in its significance but was completely unknown before Nobel's time. He actually pioneered the concept of initial ignition before he developed dynamite! Early explosives engineers even thought in terms of rigging up a mechanical hammer with which to detonate a primary charge. Like many simplistic technological jumps, the discovery of initial ignition tends to be lost in history. Alfred Nobel made millions in his lifetime supplying good, reliable explosives to the world's economies. He was popularly pilloried as a "merchant of death," but contemporary records indicate that little use of dynamite was made in a military context. Perhaps in response to the adverse PR, Nobel funded the now widely recognized Nobel Peace Prize. Few realize the source and background of the prize that rewards outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and fraternity between nations. Ironically, Nobel predicted that high explosives would eventually make wars so costly that they would cease to occur. Technological advances in the field of high explosives in the late 1800s had a high price. Alfred's older brother was killed April 12, 1888, in an explosion at their dynamite factory at Helenborg, a few kilometers from Stockholm, Sweden. The blast was the second death-dealing event in the Nobel family history. In September 1864, Nobel lost his younger brother Emil when his nitroglycerin factory went up, taking four employees and the young man with it. Under pressure from the Stockholm city fathers, Nobel moved his factory onto a raft that he floated on a nearby lake. The explosion was the first of many worldwide. Nitroglycerin factories are known to have blown up in Panama, New York, San Francisco, and Sydney. This did not seem to deter a rapidly industrializing world that saw these explosives as a good answer to reaching low-grade ore deposits deep underground and for ripping rock with which to surface carriage and railroad rights-of-way. Managers of existing nitroglycerin factories that did not detonate prematurely quickly saw the value of the new Nobel process. By mixing nitroglycerin oil with commonly available diatomaceous earth, they found it absorbed three times its own weight of the hostile liquid Only the most determined blow, or a most intense heat, could detonate the new form of high explosive. Factory owners quickly added dynamite-processing lines on to their nitroglycerin factories. By 1873, there were at least thirteen major producers throughout the world, ranging from Japan to Finland. Problems with the end product persisted, however. Watery sets tended to kill the early nitro dynamite by driving the oil out of the diatomaceous earth. Also, the product froze solid at 55øF and was extremely difficult to detonate. The water problem was solved by judicious use of additives and by better use of cartridge wrappers. Modern dynamite is wrapped with a double layer of heavy bag paper impregnated with materials that keep water out and which assist with the overall detonaffon. Ammonium nitrate, among others, was blended into the formula to give the cartridges an almost waterproof quality that is still in use today. The problem of nitroglycerin's high freezing point was never really overcome. The solution that eventually emerged involved mixing ethylene glycol dinitrate, an antifreeze compound that is molecularly similar to pure nitroglycerin oil, with pure nitro. The result was a mixture that was much more usable at low temperatures. There is no dynamite today that is pure nitroglycerin. Other compounds, such as calcium carbonate and nitrocellulose, were added to increase dynamite's stability as well as lower its freezing point. Dynamite became so safe and so well accepted that virtually every rural hardware shop had at least a few sticks, a box of caps, and some fuze in its inventory. Farm-supply stores sold it by the piece to those who were too poverty-stricken to buy more than that for which they had an immediate need. The first year Nobel sold dynamite, he peddled about twenty-two thousand pounds of the stuff. The price was $1.75 per pound. On a relative productivity scale, it was much cheaper than black powder, so marketing the product was not a particularly difficult chore. By the 1950s and '60s, annual consumption of dynamite in the United States alone was hovering around the 1-billion-pound mark. The price had fallen to ten cents per pound or, if one bought in fifty-pound case lots, the price was four dollars total. The Romans knew how to build roads and, to an extent, how to surface them with an asphaltlike material. It took Nobel and his invenffon, however, to produce cement (dynamite was necessary to blast huge stones out of the Earth in small enough pieces to crush to make the cement). At the time, the United States was starting in on the largest road-building program ever to be undertaken in human history. During the '50s and '60s, this country was evolving out of being a rural society. It was during this time that America learned to be afraid of explosives. That fear has been translated into vendor regulations and restricffons that have raised the price of powder dramaffcally. Modern explosives cost about one dollar per pound or fifty cents per stick. Unfortunately, there is no longer a single-stick price. Fifty-pound cases run a minimum of fifty dollars! To some extent, dynamite is priced on the basis of grade and strength. The strength of straight nitro dynamite (of which there is virtually none remaining today) is evaluated by its explosive oil content. For example, if the dynamite contains 40 percent explosive oil by weight, it is said to be "40-percent dynamite." Mixtures are graded by tests that establish their strength as compared to an imaginary benchmark of straight dynamite. Grades range from the relatively tame 20-percent stuff all the way up to 85-percent dynamite, known as Hy-Drive. Hy-Drive is used to detonate blasting agents such as ammonium nitrate. Lower-strength powder in the 40-percent range is used to push and throw, as in removing stumps and rocks from the Earth. The plan with this material is to keep the object being shot intact so it can be hauled away after it is torn loose from its mooring. Finishing the work with as small a crater as possible is another advantage of lower-strength powder. Higher-strength 60-percent and 70-percent grades are used to shatter rock into pocket-sized pieces and to reorganize ice jams. Some very high grades of dynamite are used to blast channels in wet marshes because these grades will propagate, meaning that, set in a row, one charge will set off another on down the line by hydraulic shock. It does not take a huge amount of expert ence to learn what strength is proper for a given application. In the final analysis, doing the work was what Alfred Nobel had in mind when he first perfected his blasting systems. With them, a single individual can dig a disposal pit or dry well in otherwise impenetrable ground, set posts, remove large boulders, redirect creeks, cut drainage ditches, unclog duck ponds, or blow up bad guys, as well as perform a host of otherwise impossible chores of immense benefit to mankind.
BASIC PROCEDURES
Detonating dynamite is relatively simple.
Getting it to go off at the time and place one desires is a matter of straightforward
training combined with a modest amount of self-discipline. Capping a dynamite
cartridge is the first, most basic skill that the would-be blaster must
master. Before proceeding, users who have never examined dynamite before
should open the end of a cartridge for a firsthand look. They will find
that the tan to tan-grey mixture looks like old chewing gum. The white
prills (spherical pellets), if included in the mixture, should be round
and firm. Mushy, distorted prills are a sign of old, going-out-of-condition
powder. Don't buy this kind if you can help it. If you have it already,
use it up. If the cartridges are weeping or leaking, carefully dispose
of them by burning. Cartridges come in a great variety of sizes and shapes.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand they will be half-pound
sticks that are about one-and-a-quarter inches in diameter by eight inches
long. I have occasionally used some twelve-inch-long sticks and some three-pound
canisters, but only a handful of times in forty years of blasting. The
three-pound canisters were special orders that I lined up for dealing with
an especially dreary stump-removal project. Approximately thirty-five fresh
oak stumps dotted the middle of a fifty-acre field. We had cut out the
logs the previous winter. Some of the logs were forty inches on the butt
end, which gives the reader some idea of the size of the stumps. All the
logs were cut into one-inch boards. Any limbs bigger than three inches
were stacked up by the stove. Other than the stumps, we were ready to farm
the ground. Usually a blaster would use a hand auger to dig down under
the stumps, fire a springing charge, and then blast the stumps out with
a heavy main charge. Because the stumps were so large and green, it was
a tough project. The sandy, dry soil and the incredibly hot, muggy weather
added immeasurably to our grief. It took immense willpower just to go out
to the humidity-sodden work site, where the last fresh breeze had blown
months ago. Lightening the work load became a priority item. The plan we
worked out did the job very nicely. By connecting a rotating six-foot length
of cold, rolled-round steel stock to the drawbar of our D-8 Cat, we fashioned
a punch that took the place of the auger. One drum of the machine's winch
raised and lowered the bar, producing a very workable, power-punching dynamite
tool. By lowering the pitch of the punch to a 45ø angle, we were
able to back up the Cat onto the bar and drive it down under the stump.
The hole it produced was just right for the three-pound canisters. We routinely
pushed four or five of the cylinders of 40-percent powder down the hole
with our rake handle and let'em rip. When we had eight or ten sets batched
up, we lit them all en masse. The little dozer operator, who had just returned
from a government-sponsored hunting trip in Korea, jumped two feet every
time a charge thumped. A couple of times the blasts were so close together
that he didn't get to touch the ground between thumps. Unlike regular cartridges,
the three-pound canisters were packed in what appeared to be common cardboard
tubes. Dynamite cartridges are wrapped in tough, deep brown paper. The
slick paperlike material of regular half-pound charges is specially treated
so that it will enter into the detonation. The paper ends and the seam
along the cartridge are sealed with wax. Dynamite cartridges are compact
and tough. As many miners can attest, they will withstand a fair amount
of rough handling bordering on abuse. Powder users will commonly encounter
two types of detonating caps. Electrical caps are easily distinguished
by their two red-and-white or green-and-yellow wire leads. The cap itself
will be a natural aluminum color. It will have a watertight rubber plug
securing the wire leads to the cap body. The 2 1/4-inch x 3/8-inch caps
are marked "Dangerous Blasting Cap Explosive" on the body. Several different
styles of electrical caps are available, providing for a time lapse between
firing and actual detonation. These are used in mining and quarrying to
allow multicharge sets to be set off in proper sequence. Standard industry
codes for these caps are as follows: Delay Period Time in Seconds (code)
to Actual Detonation 0 0.008 1 0.5 2 1.0 3 1.5 4 2.0 5 2.5 6 3.0 8 4.0
9 4.5 10 5.0 Delay-action electrical caps are manufactured by putting a
delay element with a closely controlled burn time between the ignition
element and the primer charge. The primer ultimately deteriorates the cap.
Standard delay caps are designed to fire at intervals of from one-half
to five seconds after they are electrically "set off." Codes used to designate
the type of cap one is dealing with are fastened to the lead wires. These
range from 0 (virtually instantaneous detonation) to 10 (five seconds).
The delay caps are used in a way that the outside charge blows first, relieving
the outside wall so that the inner charges will then in sequence crack
the material being blasted free in the correct direction. As a general
rule, the hobby blaster will use only the instantaneous varieties of electric
blasting caps. The only exception might occur if one buys supplies from
a quarry operator or other secondary source. Caps used with fuze were,
in times past, most common because they were generally less expensive and
less cumbersome to use than their electrical counterparts. Lately I have
had trouble buying fuze and caps in anything but very limited quantities,
dueðin part, vendors tell meðto a government drive to make these
easier-to-use explosives more difficult to obtain. Fuze caps are thin,
hollow aluminum cylinders one and one-half inches long and about one-quarter
inch in diameter. Fuze caps are much smaller than electrical caps, even
excluding the wire leads. Unlike regular dynamite (which burns without
incident for a minute or two when torched), the mixture that fills the
cap up to about two-fifths of its capacity is fire-sensitive. When the
fuze burns to it, an explosion about the intensity of a healthy firecracker
results. Fuze comes in white, red, and black colors depending on the whim
of the maker. The feel is stiff and slick. Coils can be from four to nine
inches in diameter, with lengths from fifty to one hundred feet. The fuze
core burns with a hissing, spifflng, smoking flame. Surrounding the core
is a sticky, tarlike layer that is, in turn, covered with a wrapping of
light thread that is lightly painted. It doesn't happen easily, but the
fuze should be protected from kinking. Old timers sometimes knot the fuze
around the dynamite to hold the cap in place. This procedure is a definite
no-no if one wants to avoid adrenalin-inducing rushes while cleaning up
messy misfires. The correct procedure when attaching a cap to the fuze
is to always trim about one-half inch from the end of the coil of fuze.
Do this to expose a clean, fresh, right-angle cut to the cap. The cut can
be done with a knife but is best accomplished with a nonsparking combination
cutting tool made specifically for this purpose. Dynamite combination tools
are made by Diamond Tool and others, and are available for about eight
dollars from dynamite distributorsðusually without filling out forms.
One handle of the tool is a punch and the other is a screwdriver, which
is useful when connecting drop wires to a power box. The tool is principally
useful when crimping the cap to the fuze and for cutting fuze. Crimping
can be done with common gas-pipe pliers butðlike many, many things
in life is best done with the correct instrument. Knife cutting distorts
the fuze a bit, especially on a hot day when the tarlike fuze is more pliable.
Insert the fresh-cut fuze end firmly into the cap. I perform this part
of the sequence well away from the box of cartridges, although I have never
had a cap go off prematurely. Crimp the thin aluminum skirt of the cap
securely onto the fuze. Considering that the fuze will burn at the rate
of one foot per minute, that no fuze should ever be less than a foot in
length, and that the extra time the extra fuze provides is always worth
the price, cut a proper length off the roll of fuze. Always be very cautious
about the springy fuze snapping the cap around into a rock or other hard
object and detonating it. Using a one-quarter-inch wooden stick as the
pick, or the dynamite tool, push a diagonal hole down through a dynamite
cartridge, starting about one-third of the way down the stick. Be cautious
not to run the hole through both sides of the cartridge. Some blasters
run the hole in from the end, but I have always run the hole in the side.
There is no reason for preferring the side-pick system other than this
is how I was originally taught. Insert the cap on the fuze snugly into
the hole in the punched cartridge. I use a precut eight-inch length of
baler twine to tie the capped fuze securely in place. Place the knot over
the pick hole to protect it a bit. This package constitutes the cap charge.
It is much easier to light fuze if it is sliced back about an inch, exposing
the inner powder train. Otherwise, the tar coating may bum with a weak,
yellow flame for a minute or two before the fuze itself sputters to life,
giving the neophyte apoplexy in the process. Electrical caps are inserted
into cartridges much the same way fuzed caps are installed. In the case
of electrical caps, the leads can be knotted around the cartridge to hold
the cap in place without compromising safety. Electrical caps are most
practical when multiple charges are shot. It is possible to shoot a number
of charges simultaneously using match cap and fuze with detonating cord,
but if the charges are very far apart, the cost becomes prohibitive. The
first time I used det-cord was to take out a number of six- to ten-inch
hawthorne trees. A covering of long, very sharp thorns virtually precluded
cutting them with a saw. I tightly wrapped three winds of det-cord around
the trunks two feet above ground level, slipped a fuze cap between the
trunk of the tree and the det cord, and shot them individually. In spite
of a seemingly minimal amount of exposure, I pinched up my hands and arms
doing even this much work around those damn trees. Detonating cord looks
like heavy, poly-plastic clothesline. It is fairly flexible, coming in
ten-inch, one-thousand-foot reels. The explosive component of det-cord
is extremely fast and powerful. It will take an eight-inch green tree and
splinter the trunk through to the core. I had all the trees lying over
in an hour. The principal use of det-cord, other than placing it in ditches
and holes the enemy might use during an ambush, is to connect multiple
match and fuze charges together. The material runs forty cents per foot,
precluding one from getting too carried away with this use. To obtain more
or less simultaneous detonations, you can wrap a turn of det-cord around
each cartridge in a set running from the main charge that was capped conventionally
to the side charges. Match- and fuze-capped charges are fairly reliable
in about ten feet of water. When going deeper or using electrical caps,
I place the capped charge in a thin-plastic bag. The water pressure will
collapse the bag, which helps seal out harmful moisture. Besides the combination
tool and a pocket knife, the blaster will need a long-handled shovel. The
wooden handle is good for poking the cartridges down the bore hole, especially
the first charge (called the spring or springing charge), which is used
to create the main powder chamber under the stump or rock. I have marked
my shovel handle with pieces of tape spaced every eight inches to quickly
indicate how many charges can be placed in the hole. Some blasters use
a separate tamping stick. I don't find this necessary. When I was a young
man, we often saw dynamite augers being sold at farm auctions. After a
few years they all disappeared ð I suspect into the hands of antique
collectors. To make do, we purchased some of the many one-and-one-half-inch-diameter
wood augers that barn carpenters used. By welding a five-foot-long, three-eighths-inch
steel rod to them, we had a reasonably good dynamite drill. Now even the
large-diameter bore carpenter bits are tough to find. An auger with flights
rather than a flat-spoon cutting edge is needed to pull the dirt out of
the hole. New or used, these tools are virtually unfindable. By whatever
means, a good bore-hole auger is invaluable when doing serious work with
commercial explosives. The flights must be wide enough to pull out small
stones, the cutting edge sharp enough to cut small roots, the handle long
enough to reach under the designated object, and the turning handle long
enough to torque the rig through common obstructions. Powder monkeys shooting
mostly electrical caps will also need an ohmmeter to read the resistance
in the electrical sets, a minimum of 250 feet of drop wire and up to 500
feet for heavier charges, such as that used for blasting duck ponds or
drainage ditches. After learning to make blasts with cap and fuze that
allow the user to retreat as far as his legs and discretion take him, the
user will also learn how to make sets that merely whoomp and do not throw
rock and debris all over the state. Having learned to contain the blast
by using the correct type and amount of powder, the blaster can feel more
confident regarding the use of the shorter 250-foot drop wires. Drop lines
should be heavily insulated 14-gauge wire. The ohmmeter can be a simple
instrument purchased from Radio Shack. I have never used a blasting machine.
Instead, I relied on a lantern battery for single charges and truck batteries
for multiples under five caps. I try to limit my electrical sets to five
charges. Casual dynamite users will seldom be called on to make sets larger
than could be handled by five caps. Larger sets, in my opinion, defeat
the safety argument in favor of electrical capsði.e., when they are
touched off, they either go or don't go. With match and fuze there is always
a question until the moment of detonation. Sometimes detonation takes what
seems like forever between lighting the fuze, the retreat, and the whoomp.
Electrical blasting is not a mysterious process. It does, however, require
a knowledge of the most basic laws of electricity. Electric current flowing
through a conductor such as a wire is comparable to water moving through
a pipe. Voltage is the pressure of the water (electricity). Rate of flow
through the wire is measured in amperes. In a pipe, it is gallons-per-minute.
The diameter of a wire influences the rate of flow of electricity much
the same as the diameter of a pipe influences the rate of water flow. The
cross section of either (or lack thereof) opposes the flow or creates resistance.
The three factorsðvoltage, current, and resistanceðare related
in a formula known as Ohm's Law. Ohm's Law is probably the most basic piece
of electrical physics. Every schoolboy reams the formula at one time or
another Pressure/Resistance = Rate of Flow or Volts/Ohms = Amperes These
terms relate to the three elements of an electrical blasting circuit, including
the electrical cap itself, the source of energy, and the drop wires that
carry the electrical current. The electrical blasting cap transforms electrical
energy into heat, which starts an explosive force strong enough to detonate
the main charge. Like a filament in a light bulb, the electrical charge
heats a bridge wire embedded in a flash compound. The flash compound detonates
an intermediate charge in the cap that is actually the primer. This small
but powerful charge has enough strengthto detonate the dynamite cartridge.
It takes an extremely short time for the electricity to heat enough to
flash the compound. This time can vary, depending on the amount of electrical
energy going to the cap. To a point, increasing the current lessens the
irregularities among caps. A minimum current of 0.3 to 0.4 amp will fire
a commeroal electrical cap, but safety and consistency dictate that a charge
of 0.6 to 0.8 amps be used. Cautious blasters usually figure on a minimum
of 1.5 amps of direct current (batteries) and at least 3.0 amps of 60-cycle
alternating current from a wall socket or a portable qenerator. Power sources
for a shot can be delivered by blasting machines, commercial power lines,
motor-driven generators, and storage and drycell batteries. Most blasting
machines, including the old rack-bar-type push boxes used in the movies,
are portable electric generators designed to have high voltages. Newer
blasting machines are sometimes the condenser-discharge type. Some machines
that are more than adequate for ten simultaneous shots can be carried in
one hand. They are discharged by a quick twist of the wrist. Because of
the high cost, I have never purchased a blasting machine. When hooked up
in series or used while the engine is running, standard 12-volt truck batteries
will usually fire more charges than I have the energy to install in one
set. For safety's sake, every charge set in a day should be fired that
day. Do not allow a charge to stand overnight or even leave the site for
lunch or a break. No blasting should be attempted with vehicle batteries
that are not fully charged or that show signs of any deterioration or weakness.
The engine should be on fast idle when the shot is made to ensure that
enough amperage is available. Three types of wire are used in the blasting
circuits: Leg wires are the thin, insulated wires that run from the cap
itself. They range in length from six to fifty feet. It is important to
know the resistance of these caps, including the leg wires, so that accurate
calculations can be made regarding the adequacy of one's power supply.
Resistance of Copper Wire Electrical Blasting Caps Length of Average Leg
Wires Resistance (feet) (ohms) 6 1.53 8 1.66 10 1.72 Length of Average
Leg Wires Resistance (feet) (ohms) 16 1.91 20 2.04 24 2.17 30 2.00 40 2.20
50 2.40 Resistance can be extrapolated from six to twenty feet and from
twenty-four to fifty feet At twenty feet, the wire size in caps jumps from
22 gauge to 20 gauge. The heavier wires are needed for lower resistances
over longer distances. Connecting wires are those insulated wires run through
the shot region that may be torn up at detonation. They are usually 20
gauge, ultimately connecting to the drop wires from the caps. Drop wires
are those that connect the basic set to the power source. If at all possible,
these wires should be 14-gauge copper. One must know the resistance of
connecting and drop wires to calculate how many caps can be fired from
a given power source. Use the following chart, along with an ohmmeter.
Gauge Ohms per 1,000 ft. of drop wire 4 0.248 6 0.395 8 0.628 10 0.999
12 1.59 14 2.52 16 4.02 18 6.38 20 10.15 22 16.14 There are three types
of circuits commonly used: single series, series in parallel, and parallel.
Many times, the nature of the shot will dictate the type of circuit that
must be used. If there were fifty electrical caps rather than the six shown.
the blaster would compute the circuit as follows: 50 electric caps with
20-ft. leg wires = 50 x 2.04 = 102.0 ohms Resistance of 100-ft. No.20 connecting
wire = 1.0 ohm Resistance of 250-ft. No.14 drop wire = .5 ohm Total Resistance
of Orcuit = 103.5 ohms If the current were supplied by a 220-volt AC generator,
the current supplied would be: 220 volts/103.5 ohms = 2.12 amps This is
not enough power supply to power the necessary 3.0 amps of alternating
current per cap that is considered a safe standard. To be entirely safe,
the blaster would have to cut the set down to fifty charges. These readings
can be verified by using the ohmmeter. For example, fifty caps have a resistance
of 51.75 ohms. 220 volts/51.75 ohms = 4.25 ohms A partial solution ð
if a larger set must be used, or if one is working with a smaller power
source such as a vehicle battery ð is to connect the caps in a parallel
circuit. The resistance in this case is only the resistance of each cap.
Using a parallel circuit or a parallel-series circuit, a huge number of
caps can be fired. Some sets containing more than one thousand caps are
made using a variation of a parallel series. Parallel Series Circuit Example
200-ft. No.20 connecting wire = 1.0 ohm 4 caps in parallel series = 8.12
ohms 250-ft. No. 14 drop wire = .5 ohm Total = 9.62 ohms 12 volts/9,62
ohms = 1,24 amps Note that, with direct current from a battery only, 1,5
amps is required to set off a single cap safely, In parallel, only the
resistance of a single cap between the connecting wires is used in the
computation, Very large sets are made by placing more caps in a series
between the parallel lines, but the computation does not change, Going
back again to the five-shot series (which for me is the most common multiple
shot), we have: 1OO-ft, 20-gauge connecting wire = 1,0 ohm 250-ft, 14-gauge
drop wire = ,5 ohm 5 caps with 8-ft, leg wires = 8,3 ohms 12-volt truck
battery/10,4 ohms total resistance = 1,15 amps Again, this is not enough
direct current to meet the 1,5 amps of direct current criterion, However,
with the engine running, I have found that the setup always fires properly,
The following example, while not perfect, illustrates a relatively easy
method of using common equipment to do some blasting, Parallel-Series Circuit
Example: Resistance of each series of 4 caps = 4,0 x 2.04 = 8,16 ohms Resistance
of 10 series in parallel = 8,12/10=,81 ohm Resistance of 200-ft. connecting
wire = 1.00 ohm Resistance of 250-ft, No, 14 drop wire = .50 ohm Total
= 2.31 ohms Assuming one used a 12-volt battery, the computation would
be as follows: 12/2,31 = 5,19 amps Each series would receive 5,19/10 =
,52 amp, which is not enough to take us up to the 1,5-amp safe level required,
The 5,19 amps must be divided by 10 because there are ten series of four
in the string, Using a portable generator: 220/2,31 = 95.6/10= 9.56 amps
A portable power generator would probably be adequate in most situations,
but vehicle batteries, even wired in series, would not be. The only exception
might be to power the charge from a large bulldozer battery while the machine
is running and the battery charging, Test all multiple shots with an ohmmeter,
and use short leg wires and heavy drop wires to minimize wire-resistance
problems. In the cases above, the examples are very conservative, They
probably do not reflect the average day-to-day needs of the home and recreational
blaster, As I mentioned previously, I have always powered my little four-
and five-cap sets with a 12-volt car battery or even a 6-volt lantern battery,
Remember, the rule of thumb is 1.5 amps per cap for DC and 3,0 amps for
AC. Electrical splices on blasting lines are critical. Most experienced
blaster' prefer the twisted-loop splice. This and an equally acceptable
telegrapher's splice are illustrated below. Your ohmmeter will quickly
tell you if all the splices are sound, making good electrical contact.
Be sure to keep all splices tight and practice good housekeeping with the
connecting wires. Neat, taut runs are likely to cause fewer problems. All
open-wire splices should be raised up off the ground, away from puddles
or wet grass, using dry rocks or pieces of cardboard as props. Again, be
sure to test each circuit with an ohmmeter to be certain the power source
you intend to use is adequate. All drop and connecting lines should be
wound (shunted) together securely until they are connected. Connecting
should be the last step as the user retreats from the blast site. Keep
the drop wires shunted and the power source well out of any possible reach
until the moment you are ready for the shot. For God's sake, cease all
operations if an electrical storm comes up. Even miners working a mile
underground do something else till an electrical storm has passed over.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all charges go off according to the
user's prearranged plan, as evidenced by the following tale. I was waiting
in front of the low, white, wooden, houselike structure that serves as
the consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Suddenly a wind-shock thump, strong
enough to take out exposed windows, hit me. A long, low rumble followed,
echoing up the Ping River, which runs near the consulate. I ran out the
gate and onto the street, where I could see to the north a kilometer or
two. It was possible to make out a black, swirling cloud of dust over the
trees and houses. The detonation was deep and gutsy enough to get our serious
attention but distant enough not to cause real alarm. My first reaction
was to look for aircraft. It took what seemed like an inordinate amount
of time before some sirens began to wail in the distance. We jumped into
a friend's Land Cruiser and headed out for a look. Obviously, something
was going on that we should know about. A line of police and military vehicles,
many with flashing lights, was converging on one of the rather nondescript
yet more exclusive neighborhoods of north Chiang Mail We followed discreetly
until we started to get walled in by hundreds of people walking down the
street. Without an escort or a flashing light, we could not proceed. I
asked a police officer what was going on. He just shrugged. Either he didn't
know or he wasn't going to tell a farang (foreign devil). By now an hour
had passed since the blast, but still no one on the street knew what had
happened except that there had been an explosion. Just before dark, we
finally threaded our way through the little narrow streets to the remains
of a palatial home. Leaves on the palms in the garden hung in tatters,
shredded into threads. Several buildings nearby lacked roofs. A school
half a block away was windowless on the blast side. A harried police officer
told us no children were at the school when the blast hit. Dozens of uniformed
men poked around in the piles of debris. The front of the massive house
hung in tatters. One wall of a former garage leaned sloppily amidst the
mess. There might have been other damage, but a twelve-foot cement block
wall around the property limited our ability to see everything that was
in the compound. "Looks to me like a commercial dynamite blast, " I told
the consular official. "The trees and bushes aren't blown away enough for
it to have been a faster, much more powerful military-type explosive."
No one seemed to know whose house had been hit or if anyone had been injured.
Gossip spread through the crowd to the effect that no one had been home
at the time of the blast. After a day or two, some information filtered
out about the incident. The house, we learned, was the secret retreat of
General Li, a notorious Kuomintang Chinese drug lord. General Li, who originally
came from northern China to Thailand at the time of Mao, was so reclusive
that no one was aware he lived ð at least part-time in Chiang Mail
It was not entirely true that nobody was home when the blast occurred.
A bathtub salvaged from the carnage became the repository used by the police.
It was filled with body pieces they collected. A cook and driver were never
seen again, but were never identified among the pieces, either. The theory
on the streets was that some of General Li's drug-dealing enemies had tried
to assassinate him, but that their timing was bad. A truck that allegedly
had contained the explosives had been vaporized in the blast. The police
didn't even try to find a bathtub full of parts from it. My theory is somewhat
different. It seemed obvious that we were dealing with a relatively large
quantity of commeroal dynamite rather than military explosives. I knew
that people in the Chiang Mai region often illegally traded commercial
explosives for raw opium with the jade miners who used the explosives to
get rocks out of the ground. I reasoned that perhaps we were dealing with
an accidental detonation. Assassins almost certainly would have used military
explosives. The theory is reinforced by the fact that one of General Li's
drivers appears to have been wiped out in the incident, that Thais are
awfully cavalier about explosives, and that an assassination attempt was
not logical. No one in the region had an overt motive for doing the general
in. If they had, it seems logical that they would have planned the whole
thing a bit better. My accidental discharge theory apparently has gained
some credibility, because many Burmese jade smugglers have come forward
in the last year since the incident to complain that their source of explosives
has dried up. More significantly, no one among the drug lords has come
forward admitting to perpetrating the incident. If it had been intentional,
General Li would have retaliated. Open warfare did not break out among
the drug lords. Knowing the Thais, they probably stored the caps with the
powder. Later, when they snuck off in the truck to have a smoke, disaster
struck.
DOING THE WORK
Novices who work with dynamite for
the first time are often surprised to discover that commercial explosives
are very precise in nature. They expect to encounter an uncontrollable,
unpredictable force that promiscuously rends the Earth. Instead, they find
they are working with a tool that can be likened to a hugely powerful precision
instrument. One of my earlier jobs as a powder handler involved placing
charges for a neighbor who wanted to excavate the ground under his standing
home. The guy was determined to have a basement under his houseðdespite
the fact that the original builders one hundred years ago had not seen
it that way at all! We had a small four-foot by four-foot root cellar to
start with. As a plus, the stairs going down were already in place. Lack
of moisture for one hundred years, however, had set up the soil under the
house like concrete. Digging could not be accomplished via traditional
pick and shovel methods because of limited space and the hardness of the
earth. Using mud and wet burlap bags to cap the charges, we shot half sticks
of 60-percent dynamite to break up the existing pavement and walls in the
root cellar. The cement was not particularly thick but had been placed
back when it was de rigueur to do a very good job. The breakup would have
been impossible if it weren't for the larger rock they mixed with the concrete
in an attempt to save on material costs. After the concrete was cleared
out, I used a 1 1/2-inch hammer driven mason's hand drill to bore a hole
back into the century-old hardened clay. The material was so consolidated
and brittle that a half stick of 60-percent shattered a cone-shaped hole
to dust. I carefully worked the charges back to the area below the house's
rear support beam. We shoveled the now loose material into a conveyor belt
that moved it upstairs and deposited it in a dump truck parked at the rear
of the house. By nightfall, we had excavated an area large enough to build
a frame for a foundation wall. I let the owners spend the next day completing
that work, as well as shoveling out the remaining loose material I had
shaken loose. While the new cement was hardening, I worked back in the
other direction with my explosives. By week's end, the back wall was in
place as well. Although I fired possibly twenty-five shots, nothing in
the house above was damaged. The lady of the house said she was surprised
that the blasting produced very lithe dust and no damage. We usually warned
her before the shots, but otherwise the work failed to disturb her routine.
Precision blasters have shot holes in solid rock within inches of high-pressure
gas lines. They have opened trenches so that telephone lines could be laid
right through the heart of large cities and have spectacularly demolished
great buildings that stood within inches of other - treat buildings that
were not even scratched. Although it is the wrong end of the spectrum on
which a novice should start, propagation sets used to cut ditches illustrate
the precise nature of dynamite nicely. Because a field drainage ditch is
seldom if ever blasted through regions where one must be concerned about
coming too dose to buildings, gas mains, power lines, or other works of
man, blasting one is a good project for someone who wants to test the precision
of explosives. The technique is not, however, one the novice should start
with if he has any choice in the matter. It is so difficult to master ditching
with powder that the neophyte can become discouraged easily. Ditch building
by propagation is done using regular ditching powder. Your local explosives
dealer can assist you in choosing the correct explosive material. This
will be either a 60- or 80-percent matefial that is more sensitive to shock
than regular powder and is of itself powerful enough to throw out a large
quantity of material. Other powder may push rather than shock and throw,
and will certainly not be sensitive enough to propagate. The concept is
to use one cap charge to set off up to hundreds of shock-sensitive cartridges,
all placed in a predetermined grid. Unlike 40-percent dynamite, which is
so sleepy it often cannot be detonated even by a direct hit from a high-power
rifle, ditching powder is very shock-sensitive. When I first used it, I
carried the cartridges around in a sawdust-filled box. This seemed to be
more paranoia than I am accustomed to accommodating, so I decided to experiment.
A half-pound stick thrown as high as possible from the top of a twenty-four-foot
barn did not detonate on hitting the frozen clay drive below. Eight additional
attempts failed to produce a bang. I therefore concluded that the material
was safe enough under normal circumstances. It does, however, go off rather
resolutely when hit with a bullet. Through the years, I have spent a considerable
number of pleasurable hours on my range plunking off dynamite. There is
never a question as to the placement of the shot. If it is good, everybody
in the county will know. Shooting dynamite is a bit tougher than it first
seems. Targets little more than an inch wide are tough to hit, especially
if one places them out far enough so that the blast does not constitute
a danger to the shooter. One time when such things were sffll permitted,
I bought a 25mm French Peteau cannon home with me. It came right from the
World War II Maginot lineðeight hundred pounds, rubber tires, etc.
By tinkering with the firing mechanism, I was able to bring the monster
back to life. We spent many an enjoyable afternoon firing that cannon.
Factory ammo costs about $32 per case of thirty-two rounds! Eventually
the thrill wore off. We went back to using ditching powder for targets,
set off by more conventional firearms, but the neighbors never knew the
difference. They thought we fired that antitank cannon one hell of a lot.
The best way to proceed with ditching powder is to run a couple of trial
sets. In places where the ground is consistently wet, grassy, and marshy,
the charges can be placed up to two feet apart. Should one be working with
ground that is only very damp and not wet, the spacing may only be four
to eight inches. Old logs, rocks, and roots mixed in the material to be
ditched may require that one cut the distance between charges down even
further. It is impossible to tell what spacing to use, even by looking,
much less make a valid recommendation in a book. The only way to find out
what will work is to try an experimental shot. Only one cap charge is used
to set off all the charges. Be careful to note whether the shot detonates
all the charges placed in the stfing. Some borderline cartfidges may be
thrown out undetonated. No matter how ideal the conditions, the maximum
spacing will never be more than two feet. Generally you will end up setting
up the shot grid on about one-foot centers unless the ground is virtually
saturated with standing water. Before starting in earnest, run a cord and
post line down through the region you want ditched. Unlikely as it seems,
running a straight line of cartridges without a physical line staked out
is incredibly difficult. A nice, straight ditch that the powder monkey
can be proud of will result if such early precautions are taken. Experimental
shots are done not only to determine at what spacing the shot will propagate,
but also to determine how much powder is needed to produce a ditch of the
necessary depth and width. Obviously the depth at which the charges are
placed is extremely critical if proper drainage is to result. As a general
rule, a charge set three feet deep will cut down to about four feet if
enough powder is placed above to move away the overburden material. This
may require stacking two or even three sffcks in the same hole. Ditching
powder is usually placed using a hollow-core punch bar. The punch bar is
made out of common water pipe with an outside diameter of one and a half
inches. If the swamp through which one is blasting is so soft that the
punch hole caves in immediately, the pipe must be fitted with a removable
core. This pointed core can be withdrawn and the dynamite slid into the
hollow outer shell and held in place with a wooden tamping stick as the
punch is withdrawn. It is helpful to fit the punch with a handle to facilitate
pulling, and it is essential that deep, easily seen notches be ground in
the probe's outer shell showing the depth of the tool in dynamite cartridge
lengths. Every cartridge must be idenffcally placed through material that
is idenffcal in makeup. Sandbars or subsurface loglams through which the
dynamite will not propagate can be handled by placing the charges in their
regular predetermined grid and firing them with primer cord or by electric
detonation. Determining exactly how much powder to use in this circumstance
is a bitch. Because the ground is not wet and lubricated, it would seem
as though it would take less explosives. This, however, is not necessarily
true. As no set rule exists that I know of, the best thing to do is to
make sure to use plenty of powder. It is always tough to go back and hit
the area again. If there is doubt and experiments are not practical, use
at least twice the amount that you originally estimated would do the job
when crossing a dry bar or other obstruction. In all cases, mark out the
ditch with posts and a string with a great deal of precision. Use small
wire flags to indicate the location of the charges if there is danger of
them being lost or misplaced in the marsh as you work around your grid
line. The grid of charges must be very accurately placed according to a
pretested, predetermined plan. When a ditch set is detonated, there is
a very nice ground-shuddering thump. When enough powder is used and the
grid is correct, the work accomplished is very gratifying as well as being
most spectacular. The material from the ditch is thrown out and away without
forming a costly-to-handle spoil bank. Spoil banks would be there if the
ditch were dug mechanically. Often the dirt and water are thrown two hundred
feet into the air, negating any need to bring in a dozer with a blade to
smooth things over. Other advantages to cutting ditches with explosives
include the fact that men and horses can pack explosives into places otherwise
inaccessible to backhoes and power shovels. Much smaller jobs can be undertaken
profitably due to economies of scale. Mechanical equipment requires a much
larger job to be profitable. Using explosives is also often much faster
than hauling in power shovels. At the time the charges are placed, it may
seem as though costs are going through the ceiling. But in most cases,
when everything is added in, expenses are far less than when using other
means. Clearing grass and other material out of an existing but silted-in
ditch is virtually always faster and easier with explosives. In this case,
a single string of cartridges is run down through the existing ditch line.
If the cartridges are buried at least three inches beneath the surface,
as they should be with any propagation set, clay and plastic field tiles
emptying into the ditch will not usually be harmed. There is no limit to
the number of charges that can be fired using one capped charge as the
explosive impulse through the moist soil. Using three helpers, I have set
almost a ton of dynamite in one day. The only practical limit is the amount
of territory available on which to work and the amount of energy and drive
one can muster to put out the explosives. All charges placed in a day should
be fired that evening. Ditching powder is not particularly water-sensitive,
but many other factors could lead to a potential misfire or an unsafe adventure
if the charges are left unfired overnight. Field conditions, vis-a-vis
the season of the year, are important whenever one uses explosives. When
blasting ditches, wet ground condition is one of the primary considerations.
It may be necessary to either wait for a hot spell to dry up the ground
or, conversely, for spring rains to bring enough moisture to allow the
system to work. Only shooting a trial charge will provide the necessary
information. Clearing out stumps comprises the other end of the spectrum
of work with which a powder handler will probably involve himself. Stump
removal is not only common, it is reasonably easy to master. Most blasters
will do as I did and learn the ropes of the business in the field actually
doing the work. Stumping is both easy and yet quite a challenge for those
given to thinking about such things. Like cutting a diamond, every situation
is a liffle different. Some varieties of trees (such as Norway pine, hickory,
white oak, elm, and gum) have massive, deep penetrating roots referred
to as tap roots. Others (such as white pine, fir, maple, box elder, and
cedar) have heavy lateral root structures. There is no tap root in this
second case, but rather large branch roots extruding out to the side in
all directions. Removing these stumps can be a real problem. If they are
not charged correctly, the dirt will be blown away from the base of the
stump, leaving a wooden, spider-like critter standing in the field that
is very difficult to cut away. Unless one is a trained forester, it is
impossible to tell for sure what kind of a stump one is dealing with a
couple of years after the tree has been cut. The most certain plan is to
use the dynamite auger to bore a hole under the stump and do a bit of exploring.
If the auger hits a tap root on a 30ø angle down under the stump,
it's safe to assume it's the kind with big, vertical roots. Sometimes,
however, that pronouncement is premature. Hit it once with a springing
charge, which will throw away the dirt and soil around the root. If the
stump has a tap root, it will then be obvious. I do not like to try to
bore a shot hole into the tap roots to save powder. What I save in powder
breaking the root off underground, I lose in Wheaties trying to force the
auger into the punky, tough-as-wang-leather wood. Instead, clean out a
space next to the tap root about the size of a small pumpkin. Pack in eight
to tenðor more if the stump is still large and greenð40-percent
cartridges against the tap root and let'em rip. Stumps with massive lateral
roots require about the same procedure. Dig the auger in under the main
stump mass, fire a single holing charge, and then hit it with the main
charge. The essential element is knowing how many cartridges should comprise
the main charge. Conditions change from day to day and from soil type to
soil type. Try using the following guidelines for starters: Do not, under
any circumstances, allow your mind to go into neutral while stumping with
dynamite. The result can be a bunch of thundering roars that throw pieces
all around or, even worse, a blast that simply splits the stump while leaving
it firmly anchored in bent, broken sections in the ground. Blasting stumps
quickly teaches novice powder monkeys the importance of adequately stemming
their charges. Shot holes that are solidly packed with mud or wet soil
contain the explosion in a much more satisfactory manner than if this chore
is neglected. The difference can add up to a case or more of powder by
the end of the day. Start tamping the charge by dumping some crumbly soil
down the shot hole on top of the cartridges after they are in place. Do
this with the wooden handle of your tamping stock or shovel. Keep working
the hole until it is plugged up with tightly tamped soil. It also helps
immeasurably to pile a few shovels of dirt on the hole after it has been
filled to ground level. At times when the ground does not adequately contain
the first springing shot charge or when the powder monkey inadvertently
overcharges the set, the blaster will find that he must move in quite a
bit of material with which to tamp the hole under the stump. Best to fire
up the long-handled shovel and move in whatever it takes to do the job
properly. Usually, if this happens, the surrounding soil will be loose
and easily shoveled as a result of being torn up by the sprung hole charge.
As previously mentioned, some people who work with explosives make a practice
of boring a hole into the tap root under large stumps. The procedure saves
powder but is such hard work that I never became enamored with the concept.
In the case of a very large stump with corresponding tap root, I will either
pack the tap root on one side with an unusually heavy charge or split the
charge into equal parts and fire the two simultaneously with electric caps
or primer cord. Some stumps with many lateral roots can simply be chopped
off at ground level using faster powder. Pick a fold in the stump into
which several sffcks can be packed. Cap them over with a heavy layer of
mud and fire them off. If done properly, the stump will be rent into little
pieces, leaving the bigger subsurface roots at ground level to rot. The
most difficult stump to take out is one that is burnt or has been already
shot, with only the heart taken out. The various secffons must either be
shot electrically with two or more charges or, in some cases, the shell
can be wrapped with a chain and successfully shot out in one piece (see
illustration). It sffll may be necessary to use multiple charges but the
chain will tend to hold the stump together and pull it all out in one piece.
Use plenty of chain along with slower 40-percent powder or less when employing
this method. Removing stumps with explosives works especially well if one
can combine the work with the efforts of a bulldozer as mentioned earlier.
The dozer can be rigged to punch the charge holes. It can grub out those
stumps that are not sufficiently loosened by the dynamite and it can fill
in excessive holes made by using too much powder. It's an ideal combination
if the novice powder handler can put it together. Stumping with dynamite
was, in the past, the most common nonprofessional use for explosives. Stump
removal is no longer a big item with farmers, most of whom are currently
working fields that have been cleared for more years than the farmers are
old. I don't know which use is currently in second place, but for us it
was removing and breaking stones, old foundation footings, and cement pads.
Huge stones, many as large as cars or pickups, can be thrown free of the
ground, mudcapped, split, and hauled away using a few sffcks of easily
portable powder by one skilled powder monkey. One monster stone on our
farm had maliciously and mercilessly torn shares from our plow for years.
It lay about one foot below ground level and was flat as a dining room
table and just as big if one added all the extra leaves. One day it ate
two of my shares simultaneously. That was absolutely it. I went straight
back to the shop for the dynamite. My brothers depreciated my determination.
"That stone is so big and mean", they said, "you don't have enough powder
to get it out." How words are sometimes so prophetic. It was not immediately
obvious what I was working with A five-foot auger did not reach to the
bottom side of the rock. One stick fired as a springing charge did very
little. I dropped in a bundle of seven and threw out a nice hole that I
could get down into with my shovel. Again using the auger, I went down
under the monstrous piece of granite. Another charge finally poked an adequate
cavern under the rock. I filled the hole under the rock with approximately
thirty sticks of 40-percent powder. Not many rocks require that much powder,
but this was not an average rock. By now I was so pissed off, I would have
used three hundred if that's what it took. My brothers wanted to split
it in place but, in my eyes, that would have been a cop-out. The thirty
sticks thumped about hard enough to be felt in the county seat fifteen
miles away. El Rocko pitched out on the ground, leaving a gaping hole that
eventually filled with water and mired our tractors every year we worked
the field till we sold out. It had to be the biggest rock anyone in the
county had ever tried to contend with in one piece. Two of our biggest
tractors could barely pull it away. Even normal, garden-sized rocks are
best handled by a variation of the technique we used. Get a springing charge
hole under them and throw them clear with lots of 40-percent powder. The
technique requires quite a lot of digging and augering, but it's the only
way I know of for one man to remove boulders economically. Rock outcroppings
can be removed nicely with dynamite. The technique is similar to breaking
up large rocks for transport. Old, rotten stumps can oflen be blown offar
ground level with a mud-cap charge. Large boulders such as the plow-eating
monster are usually mud-capped and split into hundreds of easily handled
pieces. It's better to haul them away whole, if you have big enough machinery,
rather than pick up all the pieces. But in cases of very large boulders,
that is often not possible. Mud-capping consists of placing a number of
sticks of fast 60-or 80-percent powder on top of the victim rock. Cover
the cartridges with four to six inches of very wet mud and touch it off.
Apparently, shock waves from the sharp, fast detonation fracture the rock.
It is the one case when a powder handler can experience a nice, audible
explosion as a result of his labors. The mud vaporizes. There is no throw-rock
danger from mud-cap charges. At times, powder handlers will use a large
masonry drill to bore a hole into an offending rock. After filling the
hole with powder, they shoot it much the same way a miner would shoot a
working face. Driving a steel drill into a solid rock is a poor substitute
for convenffonal, easy-to-set-up, effective mud caps, but it is necessary
if one wants to take out a rock ledge or outcrop. Home builders sometimes
find underground ledges through which they must cut for footings or which
are otherwise in the way. When the job is too small or too remote to bring
in a ripper, there is no alternative to trotting out the rock drill, hammers,
and powder. Use fast powder if it is easier to clean up with a scoop shovel
and wheelbarrow. Slow powder creates bigger chunks that are best pulled
away with a tractor. Old footings and cement pads can be broken into large
chunks by placing fast 60-percent charges a foot or so under the material.
The shock will tip up the slab or fooffng as well as breaking it at the
point of impact. If the cement contains reinforcing metal, it must be further
cut mechanically. Metal is usually too tough and flexible to be cut with
explosives except in special military situaffons. Road building through
hilly terrain is nicely done with explosives. Start by bofing down into
the ground between the rocks with your auger. Place as much explosive in
the hole as possible. This will loosen the rock and soil so that it can
be moved. Keep working down in and around whatever obstacles exist until
the roadbed is about as wide and deep as needed. Even a farmer with a small
tractor can cut a road through a rocky hill using this method along with
a relatively small amount of explosives. Several other chores that are
a bit obscure are possible with dynamite. Springs that are leaking water
onto one's property and creating bog holes can sometimes be shut off permanently
by shooting a large charge of fast powder deep in the ground above the
hill where the water surfaces. Not every attempt is successful but, given
the modest cost, it is worth a try Small potholes are often drained by
shooting a charge of fast, shocking-type powder deep in the underlying
hardpan that forms a water barrier for the hole. This must be done at a
time when the hole is dry and the hardpan barrier becomes brittle. In both
cases, bore down with a post-hole digger and set the charge at the very
bottom of the hole. Tamp the set shut nicely. In the case of the pothole,
it may be spring before it is obvious whether the shot was successful in
breaking the clay barrier. Other workðsuch as blasting out duck ponds,
tunneling through rock, or cutting down a rock hill for a roadðcan
be done with a combination of dynamite and ammonium nitrate. Building a
tunnel is not usually work that the casual home and recreational user will
do. This generally is left for the miners who do that work. Like stumping,
tunneling through rock is best learned by trial and error. The trial involves
finding a seam soft enough into which you can sink a hammer-driven star
drill. with a bit of practice, it is possible to determine what drill grid
will allow the powder to do its best work. Usually it is advisable to fire
the outer charges first, releasing the wall so that the inner charge can
dislodge the most rock. Hardened rock drills can be purchased from specialty
hardware stores. Another common category of working uses for dynamite is
taking out ice. The farm on which I grew up was surrounded on three sides
by a fairly large river Our most productive riverbottom field was once
threatened by a huge ice jam causing floodwater to cut across the field.
Our neighbor on the other side of the water watched jubilantly as Mother
Nature prepared to~hand him an additional forty acres of prime farm ground.
(Land titles at that time specified that ownership ran up to the high water
mark of the river, wherever that might be.) Dad asked me if I could help
him do something before the new channel got deep and permanent. I said
I could, but that it would cost as much as twenty dollars or more for dynamite.
In retrospect, the amount was so trivial it is embarrassing, but at the
time, having money for two or three cases~of dynamite seemed horribly extravagant.
Dad immediately took the truck down to the hardware store. He bought two
fifty-pound cases of 60-percent, plus a coil of fuze and a half box of
caps. I didn't know how much powder to use or how long to make the fuzes.
The rule of thumb when hitting ice is to use three times as much powder
as seems necessary. Length of time on the fuze could only be learned by
experimenting. I cut two identical lengths of fuze six feet long, capped
them to two different sticks of dynamite, and put them back in the box.
We tied the box shut securely with baler twine. At the river I lit both
fuzes at as close to the same time as possible and pushed the case into
the freezing, ice-swollen current with a long stick. A full case of dynamite
in water doesn't really sink or float. It kind of bumps along half under
the surface. We kept track of its progress by watching for the smoke from
the fuze. Unless it is put in the water too quickly or goes too deep, dynamite
fuze will burn pretty well under water. Driven by the current, the case
bumped along under the great ice pack. Huge chunks of floating ice, backed
up perhaps two hundred yards, soon obscured the progress of the drifting
bomb. After about five minutes, the case went off about one-third of the
way down the ice pack. It sent huge chunks flying nicely into the trees
standing ankle deep along the swollen river bank. A shock wave rippled
downstream, almost taking out the jam, but mostly the log and ice pile-up
stood firm. We rigged the second case. I cut the fuze off at ten minutes
(ten feet) and double-capped it again. This time the charge took so long
it was at first monotonous and then scary as we began to think we had a
misfire. It finally went with a nice roar, fight at the head of the jam.
After about ten minutes, the river started to move again in its traditional
banks. The stream across our river-bottom field diminished in intensity.
Thanks to the explosives, our property remained intact. Dynamite is, of
course, useful when one is after large numbers of fish. The fact that fuze
will burn up to ten feet under water is very helpful when one is pursuing
that activity. If there is a question, at times I will place the entire
cap charge and coiled fuze in a thin plastic bag. Water pressure collapses
the bag, protecting the burning fuze and cap charge a bit. I am not absolutely
certain that this allows me to go deeper with my charges, but I think it
does. No particular care need be taken with cap charges set for regular
propagation sets when ditching with powder. The water is never deep enough
to be of concern. We used dynamite to clean out drainage tiles, blast holes
for end posts or fence lines, clear log jams, and knock the limbs from
old, dead, "widow maker" trees we were clearing before we cut them with
a chain saw. Using dynamite greatly expands one person's ability to accomplish
uncommonly difficult tasks. This list may be a bit archaic, and is certainly
not all-inclusive, but it does illustrate to some extent the range of activities
that can be undertaken using common explosives.
IMPROVISED DETONATING
CAPS
Alfred Nobel's discovery of the principle
of initial ignition (blasting caps) in 1863 may be more significant than
the work he did pioneering the development of dynamite itself. Without
the means of safely detonating one's explosives, the explosives are of
little value as I demonstrated in the chapter on ammonium nitrate, it is
not particularly difficult to come up with some kind of blasting agent.
Making it go boom somewhat on schedule is the real piece of work in this
business. Finding something to use for a cap is a different kettle of fish.
Usually under the facade of safety, blasting caps are the first item to
be taken off the market by despotic governments. There are at least two
reasonably easy, expedient methods of making blasting caps. The formulas
are not terribly dangerous but do require that one exercise a high degree
of caution. Caps, after all, are the most sensitive, dangerous part of
the blasting process. Improvised caps have an additional element of risk
due to the fact that they are sensitive to relatively small amounts of
heat, shock, static electricity, and chemical deterioration. The solution
is to think your way carefully through each operation and to make only
a few caps at a time. By doing so, you will limit the potential damage
to what you hope are acceptable levels. Fuze and electric-sensitive chemical
mixtures are best put in extremely thin-walled .25 ID (inside diameter)
aluminum tubing. If the tubing is not readily available, use clean, bright,
unsquashed, undamaged .22 magnum rimfire cases. Do not use copper tubing
unless the caps will be put in service within forty-eight hours of their
manufacture. Copper can combine with either of the primer mixtures described
below, creating an even more dangerous compound. For fuze-type caps, empty
.22 mag brass should be filled to within one-quarter inch of the top of
the empty case. This unfilled one-quarter inch provides the needed "skirt"
used to crimp the fuze to the cap. Fuze can often be purchased. If not,
make it yourself out of straws and sugar chloride powder. Two mixtures
are fairly easy when making the priming compound for blasting caps. Crush
to fine powder two and a half teaspoons of hexamine (military fuel) tablets.
Make sure you use hexamine. Sometimes hexamine is confused with trioxcine,
a chemical that is used for basically the same purpose. Often, but not
always, hexamine is white, while trioxaine is bluish. Hexamine is available
at many sporting goods stores and virtually all army surplus shops. Many
of the survival catalogs also carry it, often in larger quantities at reduced
prices. I personally favor ordering my hexamine from survival catalogs
to be more certain of what I am geffing. Many clerks in sporting goods
stores seem to have under-tone lobotomies as a qualification for the job.
In my experience, they will either try to talk you out of hexamine if they
don't have it, or try substituting something else (suppositories, for instance)
if they can't determine for sure what it is they have or exactly what you
want. As of this writing, a sufficient amount of hexamine to make two batches
of caps costs from $.75 to $1.50. Place the finely powdered hexamine in
a clear glass mixing jar. A pint-sized jar with an old-fashioned glass
top is perfect for the job. Add four and a half tablespoons of citric acid
to the two and a half teaspoons of crushed hexamine. Stir with a glass
rod until the mixture is a slurry. The citric acid can be the common variety
found in the canning department of the grocery store. It is usually used
to preserve the color of home-frozen and canned fruit and sells for about
$1.59 per bottle. The final mix involves pouring in a tablespoon of common
peroxide. Use the stuff bottle blondes are famous for that is 20- to 30-percent
pure by volume, available from drugstores. This material is the cheapest
of the ingredients, costing roughly one dollar per bottle. Shake the mixture
vigorously for at least ten minutes, until everything appears to be in
solution. Set the mixing jar in a dark, undisturbed spot for at least twelve
hours. Be sure this place is somewhat cool as well as dark. Don't put it
in the basement on top of a heat duct, for instance. After a few hours
of undisturbed, cool shelf sitting, a white, cloudy precipitate will begin
to appear. At the end of twelve hours, there should be enough to load three
blasting caps. Making enough chemical for three caps is just right, in
my opinion. Anything more in one batch is too risky. Filter the entire
mix through a coffee filter. Run four or five spoons of isopropyl alcohol
through the powder to clean it. Spread the wet, filtered powder on a piece
of uncoated, tough paper. Don't use newspaper or magazine covers. Notebook
paper or a paper bag is ideal. Allow the powder to dry in a cool, dark
place. The resulting explosive is very powerful. It is also very sensitive,
so use caution. In my opinion, the concoction is about three times as powerful
as regular caps of the same size. Using a plastic spoon, fill the presorted
and precleaned .22 mag cases with the powder. Pack the powder down into
the case with a tight-fitting brass rod. I have never had an incident,
but for safety's sake I still use a heavy leather glove and a piece of
one-quarter-inch steel clamped in a vise to shield me when I pack in the
powder. The end result is a very nice cap, ready to clamp on the fuze in
the customary fashion. If a piece of tubing is used in place of a mag case,
securely crimp or solder one end shut. It will not do to have the powder
leak out of the cap. Powder contact with the solder should be kept to a
minimum. Fingernail polish can be used to seal the lead away from the chemical.
It is possible and perhaps desirable to continue on and turn these caps
into electrically fired units, but more about that later. First we'll discuss
another good formula that uses equally common materials. This one is a
bit better because the mixture involves all liquids, but it is temperature
critical and should therefore be approached with special care. Mix 30 milliliters
of acetone purchased from an automotive supply house with 50 milliliters
of 20- to 30-percent peroxide purchased from the corner bottle blonde.
There are about 28 milliliters per ounce. Adjust your mix on that basis
if you have nothing but English measures to work with. Stir the acetone
and peroxide together thoroughly. Prepare a large bowl full of crushed
ice. Mix in a quart or so of water and about one-half to two-thirds pound
of salt. Place the pint jar with the acetone and peroxide in the salt ice
cooling bath. Measure out 2.5 milliliters of concentrated sulfuric acid.
Sulfuric is available from people who sell lead acid batteries. Using an
eyedropper, add this to the mixture one drop at a time. Stir continually.
If the mixture starts to get hot, stop adding acid and stir as long as
it takes for the temperature to start to drop again. After all the acid
has been added, cover the jar and set it in the refrigerator for twelve
hours. Try not to disturb or shake the jar by opening the refrigerator
needlessly. Again, a white, cloudy precipitate will form in the bottom
of the pint jar. As before, filter through a coffee filter, but wash it
with a couple of spoons of distilled water. Spread on paper and dry. Like
the first material, this batch will produce enough powder for about three
caps. These are pretty hefty caps, having about three times the power of
regular dynamite caps. They should set off ammonium nitrate, but don't
be surprised if they don't. I have never tried it, but making two caps
from a batch rather than three might create a cap with enough heft to detonate
ammonium nitrate reliably. The problem then is that .22 mag brass does
not have enough capacity. You will have to go to a hardware store to find
suitable aluminum tubing. Electrical caps, because of the fact that bridge
wires must be included in the package, must be considerably larger than
fuze caps. For making electrical caps, use any fine steel wire that is
available. I use nichrome .002 diameter wire purchased from a hardware
specialty shop. Hobby shops are also a source of this wire. Copper wire
is easiest to obtain but should not be used because of its possible reaction
with the blasting material. I strongly urge that an experimental piece
of proposed bridge wire be placed in a circuit with a 12-volt car battery,
a wall outlet, or whatever power source will be used. The wire should burn
an instantaneous cherry red when the current is applied. If it doesn't,
use a smaller diameter wire. Having located a usable wire, cut the thread-thin
material into six-inch pieces. Bend these into a U and place them in the
bottom of the tubes. Pack the recently manufactured cap explosive in around
the wire. Seal the cap off with silicon caulk. Allow the cap to cure for
several days. The last step is to attach the lead wires to the thin bridge
wires. The job can be tougher than one would suppose because of the thinness
of the bridge wires. Be sure the connection is secure and solid. Use tiny
mechanical clamps as necessary and, of course, do not even think about
soldering the wires after they are embedded in the primer. For some unknown
reason, some of my mixtures have not detonated well using a heated bridge
wire. To get around this, I have occasionally loaded two-thirds of the
cap with hexamine or acetate booster and one-third with FFFF6 black powder
or sugar chlorate powder, whichever is easier and more available. The chlorate
or black powder ignites much more easily, in turn, taking the more powerful
cap mixture with it. Concocting this combination is, of course, dependent
on having the necessary materials. If black or sugar powder is not available,
the caps can usually be made to work reliably using only the original cap
powder. Making these caps requires more than the usual amount of care and
experimentation. The procedure is workable but dangerous. Blasters who
can secure commercial caps are advised to go that route. But if not, these
caps are workable and, in total, not all that tough to make.
INTRODUCTION
Survivors generally agree that commercial
explosives lend themselves best to commercial applications. Paramilitary
survival explosives, as a general rule, need to be more powerful. For instance,
store-bought dynamite will not cut steel or shatter concrete (usually).
Many survivors believe that there are times ahead when they will need an
explosive equivalent of military C-4, or plastique. However, as with the
lottery, fire department, and post office, which are monopolized by various
government agencies, the federal government monopolizes C-4, making it
next to impossible to purchase. Survivors can't count on buying and caching
military explosives against the day of need. According to standard military
charts, straight 60-percent commercial dynamite, the most powerful grade
generally available to the public, has a detonation velocity of approximately
19,000 feet per second (fps). Military TNT detonates at about 22,600 fps.
TNT is considered to be the minimum grade of explosive required by survivalists
and paramilitarists who want to cut steel and shatter concrete. C-4, the
acknowledged big-league explosives benchmark, detonates at a speedy 26,400
fps. C-4 may seem to be ideal for your survival needs, but, as with many
somewhat worthy objectives, the game may not be worth the candle. Mixing
up a batch of C 4 may not be worth the risk. It is both dangerous and illegal.
Seymour Lecker, in his excellent book, Improvised Explosives, quotes the
famous paramilitarist Che Guevara: "Fully half of me people we assigned
to explosives-making were eventually killed or maimed." Even the best,
simplest formulas are dangerous. The one mat follows is no exception. It
is the safest formula that I know of, but even at that, a certain percentage
of those who try to make this explosive will end up as casualffes. Federal
laws regulating explosives manufacture are extremely strict. Home manufacturers
can receive penalties of up to $10,000 and/or ten years' imprisonment.
If personal injury to other parties results from me experiments, fines
and jail sentences can be doubled. Although there are ominous signs on
me horizon, the United States does not yet seem to be part of a completely
totalitarian society. In that regard, anarchy may be premature. However,
this is purely a matter of personal perspective. Times and events can change
quickly. Processes that may now appear unduly risky from a chemical, legal,
and socopolitical standpoint may soon be entirely acceptable. Each reader
should know the risks and then apply his own standards. If you think that
you would like to have C-4 now (or possess the capability of making it
at some later date), this book is for you. What follows appears to meet
most survivors' specifications for a military-grade explosive. If you follow
instructions carefully, the material is relatively safe to manufacture,
but, of course, making or having it was illegal at the time this book went
to press. To solve this dilemma, you may choose to master the necessary
skills and store this knowledge away with the necessary ingredients in
case you need them later.
AMMONIUM NITRATE
One may be amazed to find that something
as common as agricultural-grade ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) is the basis
for a huge number of explosives Ammonium nitrate is readily available on
a year-round basis. Farms of every size regularly use hundreds of tons
of this fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate is often the preferred source of nitrogen
for such crops as corn, wheat, beans, and barley. Farmers use it whenever
they need a source of relatively stable, long-lasting agricultural nitrogen.
This is especially surprising since the concentration of nitrogen per bag
is relatively low, making this nitrogen source expensive for many cost-conscious
farmers. Ammonium nitrate costs as much as $9 per 80-pound bag in farm
supply stores and up to $15 per 60- or 80-pound bag in garden-supply stores
where profit margins are steeper. Ammonium nitrate was first produced in
the early 1860s by Swedish chemists. The process they developed is the
same one used today by major fertilizer manufacturers. The process entails
putting natural gas under great pressure, mixing it with superheated steam,
and injecting the mixture into a conversion chamber lined with a platinum
catalyst. After the reaction is underway, the generated heat causes the
process to be self-sustaining. Pure liquid ammonia produced by this process
is combined with nitric acid, which is also produced by most ammonium-nitrate
manufacturers. (Many producers sell nitric acid to other manufacturers
for use in their manufacturing operations. Although U.S. production of
nitric acid and ammonium nitrate is now virtually absorbed by agribusiness,
most of the plants were started with government subsidies as explosives
manufacturers.) Combining nitric acid and ammonia produces salts, which
after being dried and prilled should be 34 percent nitrogen. Some fertilizers
marked ammonium nitrate may actually be something else. Manufacturers often
add a calcium coating to ammonium nitrate because it is deliquescent, which
means it pulls moisture out of the air. Uncoated, unprilled ammonium nitrate
will quickly harden into a substance resembling green concrete. Anything
more than a slight calcium coating, however, will keep the activating liquid
(in this case, nitromethane) from soaking into the ammonium nitrate, just
as it prevents the absorption of water. If the manufacturer adds more than
a minute coating of calcium, he must mark the bag appropriately. Don't
use this material. Although fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate can usually
be purchased from nurseries and garden-supply stores, a better source for
explosives manufacture is farm-supply stores. Garden-supply outlets often
stock fertilizers that are blends of ammonium nitrate and other fertilizers.
Blends are absolutely unacceptable even if they claim to contain a base
of ammonium nitrate. Buy only pure ammonium nitrate because any other additives
dramatically reduce its explosive effectiveness. Sales clerks often will
try to get you to substitute urea or ammonium sulfate for ammonium nitrate.
They point out that the substitute is less expensive, more stable, has
just as much nitrogen, and is a prettier color. (I customarily explain
that I need pure ammonium nitrate because I intend to blow up the material.
This approach works best in rural stores. Urban clerks, used to supplying
yuppie rose growers, may look askance at this sort of honesty.) Would-be
home-explosives manufacturers must learn to read fertilizer bags, at least
in a superficial sense. The figures listed on the bag refer to the ratio
of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash contained in the product. Ammonium
sulfate will be listed as 21-0-0 or something close. Urea, which can contain
from 46 to 48 percent nitrogen, would read 46-0-0. Blends such as 21-44-8
contain 21 percent nitrogen, 44 percent phosphate, and 8 percent potash.
These and other similar substitutes are worthless for anything other than
fertilizing. Only ammonium nitrate contains a ratio of 34-0-0. On arriving
home with the 34-0-0 fertilizer (if you're not planning on using it right
away), seal the unopened bag (ammonium nitrate is properly sold in plastic-lined
bags, not from bulk bins) in at least two heavy-duty plastic garbage bags.
Of course, any partially full bags should also be sealed thoroughly to
prevent moisture absorption. Under many circumstances in the United States,
it is virtually impossible to store ammonium nitrate for any length of
time and still maintain usable ingredients. Ammonium nitrate has been involved
in some spectacular explosions during this century. Well over 3 million
pounqs of ammonium nitrate accidentally detonated in the harbor at Texas
City, Texas, in 1947. Oppau, Germany, was blasted right off the map in
1921 by a free-roaring ammonium nitrate blast. (For more information about
these and other great explosions of history, read Fire, Flash, and Fury
by Ragnar Benson, Paladin Press.) However, in spite of these notable accidents,
ammonium nitrate is relatively safe to handle. Many farmers store it in
barns just a few feet from the house. An unlikely combination of heat and
contamination by oils or coal dust can cause problems, but as a general
rule, I would not be fearful of keeping the material under my bed. It is
inert, as road builders, quarry operators, farmers, contractors, and others
who use it as an inexpensive blasting agent find out. Ammonium nitrate
must be soaked with fuel oil and/or mixed with powdered walnut hulls, coal
dust, or another source of carbon to make it active. Even with these combustible
additives, I find it terribly difficult to make ammonium nitrate detonate.
Officially, ammonium nitrate is considered only a blasting agent, but it
does have some explosive applications. During World War I, the British,
who were low on military explosives, used a million pounds of ammonium
nitrate laced with TNT and powdered aluminum to stage a successful sapper
attack against the German lines at Messines Ridge in Belgium. Later on,
continuing through World War II, the French and Germans both loaded their
high-explosive artillery and mortar rounds with ammonium nitrate explosives.
Although many countries around the world now prohibit the sale or possession
of ammonium nitrate, it is commonly available in the United States and
will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future. At this time,
buying an 80-pound bag should be no problem for anyone (even city dwellers)
with ten dollars and a means of cartina it off.
NITROMETHANE
Nitromethane is the second of three
chemical components needed to put C-4 together in one's home chemistry
lab. The material is somewhat obscure, expensive, and at times desperately
ffme-consuming to obtain. On the other hand, it is reasonably safe to handle
and can be located if one applies oneself to the task. Nitromethane (CH3NO2)
is used in many organic chemistry laboratories as a washing solvent and
is found in virtually every college chemistry lab. Industrial firms use
it to dissolve plastics, clean up waxes and fats, and manufacture numerous
chemical-based products. More commonly, nitromethane is used as a fuel
additive. Model-plane enthusiasts mix it with castor oil and alcohol to
power their miniature engines. It is also used to fuel small indoor race
cars and go-carts. But the largest group of consumers commonly available
to survivors is drag racers. It is sot uncommon for quarter-milers to burn
gallons of this expensive fuel on every run. As a result, the best place
to look for nitromethane is at drag strips and stock-car races. Often a
local petroleum dealer will bring a 55-gallon barrel of the fuel to the
track and sell it by the gallon to the drivers and mechanics. As a result,
those who can't afford 55 gallons can buy enough to compete that night.
In some larger cities, petroleum dealers handle the fuel on a limited basis.
An hour or two on the phone may uncover a dealer who will sell it by the
gallon. Most bulk petroleum dealers will special-order a full barrel, but
at $1,925 per barrel (based on $35 per gallon), few survivors would be
interested. Another likely place to look for nitromethane is in hobby shops.
Most carry premixed model engine fuel, containing up to 40 percent nitromethane.
Theoretically, this fuel mixture should acffvate ammonium nitrate, but
my experience using it is mixed at best. Perhaps if the fuel is fresh and
dry, it might work consistently. Yet, in spite of extensive testing, I
have not achieved even a 30-percent success rate using high-concentration
model fuel. The problem appears to be the alcohol which, when mixed with
the fuel, pulls moisture out of the air even when the bottles are well
sealed. A few well-stocked hobby shops carry six- or eight-ounce bottles
of nitromethane. Most will special-order it by the gallon at considerably
more than $35 per gallon. Model-plane enthusiasts usually do not use fuel
containing more than 15 percent nitromethane because it will burn up their
expensive little engines. So survivors probably won't find more than a
gallon or two of the high-concentration, 40-percent fuel even in well-stocked
hobby shops. If they do find it, it probably will not work consistently.
If all else fails, nitromethane can be ordered at extremely high prices
from chemical supply houses. Most will sell it to individuals since nitromethane
does have a number of valid "civilian" uses. Check survival magazines for
addresses or borrow a Fisher or Sigma catalog from the local high-school
chemistry department. It may be possible to locate local industrial or
commercial users who are willing to sell a few spare gallons. Officially,
nitromethane is categorized as a Class 3 conflagrant, meaning it reacts
to open flame on about the same level as gasoline. It is not highly sensitive
to shock. At drag strips, dealers drop barrels of nitromethane off their
trucks or roll them around with impunity. They seem little concerned with
the consequences of rough handling. However, nitromethane is moderately
toxic if ingested or inhaled. People who have ingested the material may
suffer from nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. Heavy or regular ingestion
can result in permanent damage to the kidneys. Nitromethane is about as
toxic and explosive as leaded gasoline in its original state. Nitromethane
is much less costly today than when it was developed at the turn of this
century. Initially, it was made by reacting methyl iodide with silver nitrite.
The resulting product was combined through the Kolbe reaction method, using
chloracetic acid. At the time, nitromethane explosives were considered
effective but far too expensive to merit large-scale production. Today,
nitromethane is manufactured by injecting nitric acid into a high-pressure
chamber containing superheated methane gas, a relatively inexpensive process
At temperatures of 400øC the reaction becomes selfsustaining. Because
its price has decreased so dramatically, nitromethane is encountered more
frequently today as a fuel additive and in laboratories. Pure nitromethane
is a thin, syrupy, yellow liquid. It smells a bit sweet, but the odor is
subtle enough that it is not readily recognized. Food coloring can be safely
added to camouflage the liquid, if you desire. When lit, nitromethane burns
brightly with considerable heat and force until the fuel is consumed. In
its pure, unmixed form, it has a shelf life of about four years before
moisture destroys it. As with ammonium nitrate, possession of nitromethane
is not controlled except perhaps in isolated local instances. Nitromethane
can be stored by survivors for relatively long periods in plastic or steel
containers. If one does not spill large amounts of the substance in an
unventilated space or suck one's thumb after using it, nitromethane is
relatively benign. The challenge for survivors entails finding a source
of affordable nitromethane, which may mean putting a long-term, well-programmed
procurement plan into place.
HOME MANUFACTURE
OF C-4
Making homemade C-4 requires one more
chemical: denatured ethyl alcohol. This ingredient is so common and so
safe that no further discussion is requiredðexcept to emphasize the
importance of using fresh alcohol, preferably purchased from a paint-supply
store. Having come this far, most readers will agree that we are dealing
with some fairly benign chemicals. Now the trick is to combine them in
an effective and reasonably safe manner. As with most things in life, there
is a downside. The process is not nearly as simple as one would hope, but
it is possible, even for chemists with only high school training, to carry
it out. My strong suggestion remains that anyone contemplating home manufacture
of C-4 think through both the process and the consequences thoroughly before
proceeding. The following procedure yields an extremely powerful explosive.
It dwarfs anything available on the commercial market. Even 80-percent
Hy-Drive dynamite pales into firecracker class compared to the explosive
you may produce. Those who decide to proceed are also reminded that 1)
they are probably violating federal law, and 2) they should already know
how to handle conventional commercial explosives competently before attempting
this procedure. Experimenters should start with small test batches, remembering
that those who fail to use caution, common sense, and care could face disastrous
results. Compared to manufacturing some other explosives, producing this
C-4 substitute is not particularly difficult or dangerous. What danger
does exist comes when combining the materials, which can be done at the
last moment immediately preceding actual use. Nevertheless, the procedures
are exacting. Those who are untrained in chemistry or who are sloppy or
careless will not succeed. Now that my warning is complete, let's begin.
The first step is to dry the ammonium nitrate and keep it dry. Where the
humidity is high, this is a difficult to virtually impossible task. Start
by taking a one-pound coffee can or its equivalent from a freshly opened
bag of ammonium nitrate. The coffee can will hold one-and-one-half to two
pounds of prilled ammonium nitrate. A one-pound can provides a greater
height relative to diameter, which makes the volume less dense and aids
in its drying. Seal the unused bag of ammonium nitrate away in double plastic
garbage bags immediately after removing the amount needed. Place the can
in an electric oven set at the lowest possible setting and dry in the oven
for a minimum of three hours. Be careful that the temperature never goes
above 150ø F. (Doing this properly will require a good-quality,
lab-grade, dial-read thermometer available from chemical supply firms or
catalogs.) Ammonium nitrate liquefies at about 170 F and will blow at about
400 F. Before it explodes, it will bubble and smoke, providing adequate
warning to remove it from the heat. On completion of the heating cycle,
seal the dried prill in the coffee can and place it in double, sealed plastic
bags. At most, this material will last ten to twelve days before absorbing
too much moistureðeven though it is triple-sealed. Always make sure
the seals are completely zipped and airtight. Place about 250 milliliters
(about 430 grams) of this oven-dried material in an oven-proof glass dish.
Cover the prill with the type of denatured ethyl alcohol used to carry
moisture out of gas lines (available from paint and automotive supply houses
at about seven dollars per gallon). Stir this mixture around for about
three minutes or until the alcohol turns a muddy, cloudy brown. Drain off
the alcohol by straining through a seine or screen; Dump the 430-gram sample
back into the dish and gently heat over low heat. (I use a stainless-steel
wok at the lowest heat setting, but you could also use your stove top or
a hot plate.) Use a thermometer to be certain the sample stays below 150øF.
Immediately after the alcohol wash, grind the prill to avoid moisture absorption.
Various methods can be used to do this. Some survivors use two flat hardwood
boards, a mortar and pestle, or even an electric coffee grinder. By whatever
means, reduce the prill to talcum-powder consistency. (If the prill is
not ground finely enough, it may be necessary to sieve the powder. It is
hoped this step will be unnecessary. Makers will note that the ammonium
nitrate begins to cake and lump from moisture when removed from the grinder.
Sieving only exacerbates this situation.) Quickly tamp or pack the powder
into a container. This must be done before the ammonium nitrate begins
to reattract moisture, so it isn't always possible to do a thorough job.
Preventing moisture absorption is your primary concern, so work quickly.
When selecting a container, make certain that it is airtight. Old medicine
or spice bottles work nicely. Some commercial makers use custommade, thin-walled
aluminum cylinders that look much like containers for high-priced cigars.
Although the finished product is doughlike and can be put in a plastic
bag to mold around a girder or squash into a crack, it seems to have considerably
more power when packed tightly in a rigid cylinder. I did not have a chronograph
or any other means of measuring speed of detonation so it is impossible
to make the above claim with certainty. However, the packed material produced
larger holes in the ground because it apparently cakes better with the
nitromethane when held tightly in a rigid configuration. Whatever container
is used, the maker must know exactly how many grams of ammonium nitrate
it will hold. Also, there appears to be a minimum amount of powder that
can be detonated. With less than 300 grams (about 10 ounces), it is tough
to bury the cap thoroughly and secure a good detonation. When deciding
on container size and the amount of ammonium nitrate to use, remember to
leave a small space at the top of the container for the liquid nitromethane.
Using the correct amount of nitromethane to sensitize the ammonium nitrate
is much more critical than one would first suppose. I avoided the need
for scales by using metric measurements wherein weight and volume using
specific gravity become identical. Despite almost driving our family into
poverty by my many costly experiments, I still do not feel I have all of
the answers pertaining to this process. My experiments indicate that one
should use slightly less than one-third nitromethane by volume, but this
seems to vary from one gallon of nitromethane to the next and from one
bag of ammonium nitrate to the next. Too much nitromethane will kill the
mixture, while too little will not sufficiently sensitize the ammonium
nitrate. When dumped on the powdered prill, the proper amount of nitromethane
will cause the powder to bubble slightly. It is almost as if there were
live clams in the container, blowing in the sand after the surf rolls over
them. After about two minutes of soaking, the nitromethane ð if the
correct amount is added ð will saturate the powder and turn it into
a thick, porridgey mass. Too much nitro will produce a gruel that is too
thin to fire. I used plastic pill bottles that contained about 430 grams
(about 11 ounces) of powdered ammonium nitrate, and they produced very
powerful blasts. A hit from this much explosive is awesome and probably
sufficient to demolish small bridges and trucks, and maybe even to knock
tread off a tank. Certainly in groups of two or three fired together, it
would do the job. To this 430-gram container, I added about 75 to 80 milliliters
of pure nitromethane. Getting just the right amount will require experimentation.
Unfortunately, I know of no formula that states precisely how much nitromethane
to use. As a rough starting point, try one part nitromethane to three parts
of ammonium nitrate by volume or two parts nitromethane to five parts ammonium
nitrate by weight. Theoretically, the material should sensitize in five
minutes, but I get better results by waiting twenty minutes. Once the nitromethane
is poured into the ammonium nitrate, there is no need to be overly concerned
about moisture getting into the powder. Water would, of course, wash the
mash away if it were exposed, but the plastic bottle should solve that
problem. This explosive would not be the first choice for those undertaking
underwater demolitions work, but it could be used if no other explosive
material were available. When mixed, the shelf life seems to be a couple
of weeks or more. At this writing I am not aware of any reason ð other
than psychological ð why this material could not be combined and sensitized
ahead of time. Storing the mixed explosive does not seem any riskier than
storing commercial dynamite. This mixture may deteriorate in time, but
my experiments did not indicate this. Although the combined material seems
safe to handle, it is definitely exciting when detonated with a number
six or eight cap. Commercial dynamite detonated on bare, hard ground will
skin it up a bit. This explosive will dig six- or seven-inch holes without
top tamping of any kind. I estimate the velocity of detonation to be about
21,000 fps or slightly less than TNT, which detonates at about 22,600 fps.
C-4, the explosive benchmark, roars out at an incredible 26,600 feet per
second. The additional speed between commercial dynamite at 19,000 fps
and C-4 is what cuts steel and shatters concrete. One is for homeowners,
the other for survivors. Recounting, to make C-4: 1. Use fresh NH4NO3.
2. Dry the NH4NO3 in an oven at low heat(less than 150 F) for three hours
or more. 3. Wash the NH4NO3 in alcohol until the alcohol turns muddy brown.
4. Dump the prill in a metal container and dry them thoroughly over low
heat (less than 150 F). 5. Grind the NH4NO3 as fine as talcum powder. 6.
Pack a premeasured amount in a rigid air-tight container. 7. Pour in one-third
nitromethane by volume. 8. Wait twenty minutes. 9. Shoot with a cap similar
to dynamite. It is important that all of the steps be undertaken carefully
and methodically, and that one experiments before going out in the field
with military objectives in mind.
THE FINISHED PRODUCT
We stood back about 90 yards from the
small 11-ounce dab of explosive as the fuze slowly burnt its way down to
the cap. In our experience, 90 yards was more than sufficient to protect
us from such a small amount of explosive. My many failed experiments with
this material had left me uncertain as to whether we had anything more
than another dud. The mountain meadow behind my cabin was strewn with ruptured
plastic containers, left by dynamite caps that failed to detonate the explosives.
This time when the detonation hit, it was spectacular. A successful blast
at last! The last time I experienced anything similar, I was firing LAW
rockets at Fort Benning, Georgia. I vividly remember when the concussion
from the three-pound warhead thumped us, even at 200 meters. I also remember
a similar reaction while running through the army's live-fire tank-commander
school south nf Boise, Idaho. Although I lacked sophisticated test equipment
to measure its impact, the explosion undoubtedly had sufficient brisance
to cut steel and shatter reinforced concrete. Several observers with military
experience agreed that the homemade C-4 was formidable. The afterglow from
my original success kept me going when my next few attempts turned out
to be duds because my ammonium nitrate had become water-soaked. I blew
my materials budget, but eventually the results became consistent. The
process produces the followinq reaction: NH4NO3 + CH3NO2 => H2O + CO2 +
NO2 As a practical explosive, this material seems ideal. Two shots fired
from a high-power rifle do not tell the entire story, but smacking the
explosive with my .223 at 45 yards did not produce a detonation. To further
test its sensitivity, I set a batch aside for a week. Then I threw it down
a rocky ledge and later burned it on a bed of logs without any apparent
effect. Even the burning itself was not particularly notable. This explosive
is remarkably similar to genuine C-4ðparticularly in its stabilityðbut
it lacks one of C-4's more desirable attributes. The brisance of this improvised
C-4 was not as great as that of the genuine article. It wasn't off much,
but the last 5,000 fps might mean the difference between a good and an
excellent explosive. Boosting this material into the C-4 class became my
goal once the secret of consistent manufacture was in hand. The tip-off
to a possible solution came while I was researching World War I's Messines
Ridge sapper attack. Messines Ridge was the only actual trench-warfare
offensive sapper action during a war that was fought almost entirely as
a set-piece contest. After 18 months of preparation, the nine tunnels filled
with almost one million pounds of explosives were detonated on June 7,
1917. The resulting blast was heard by British Prime Minister David Lloyd
George from his home in London 200 miles away. Britain's World War I explosives
manufacturers added finely ground aluminum powder to this explosive, called
ammonal, to boost its brisance. Ammonal was used because two years of protracted
warfare had consumed virtually all of Britain's conventional explosives.
It was manufactured using 72 percent ammonium nitrate, 12 percent TNT,
and 16 percent finely ground aluminum powder. Having made that discovery,
I began to experiment with powdered aluminum. I added it to the ground
ammonium nitrate before adding the nitromethane. At a level of about 5
percent (or about 20 grams) mixed thoroughly into 430 grams of NH4NO3,
the effect was dramatic. Instead of seven-inch holes in the earth, I was
gouging out nine-inch craters with less than three-fourths of a pound of
explosive! Fine-ground aluminum powder is available from well-stocked paint
stores and chemical supply houses, but the best place to buy it is from
an automotive-parts shop. It is used to plug leaky radiators and is sold
in 21-gram tubes. Some aluminum powder is too coarse to enter into the
detonation reaction. But most samples are finely ground and, for the price,
work quite well (about $13.85 per pound). Purists can obtain very finely
ground aluminum flakes from chemical supply houses if use of this relatively
expensive (from $30 to $40 per pound) material seems warranted. Theoretically,
it would be advantageous to pack the explosive in small plastic bags that
could be molded around a piece of steel or other object that one wished
to cut. What scant printed information is available on this explosive suggests
that the material should remain undisturbed and unmixed after the addition
of the nitromethane. Without careful, controlled testing, we do not know
if the combined materials become dangerously sensitive after mixing So
as a precaution, take to the blast site carefully premeasured amounts of
aluminum powder in small sealed tubes and similar containers of premeasured
nitromethane to pour into the powder Inserting the cap and placing the
charne should take about twenty minutes, and the charge should then be
ready to do its work. Although this process is not unduly threatening to
those who have handled explosives, it is an exacting and mostly untested
one. Those who do not carefully follow all instructions should expect dangerous
or poor results. Those who proceed with intelligence, caution, and diligence
can expect to produce an explosive that will make despots tremble in their
boots.
CONCLUSION
Other materials exist that can be combined
with ammonium nitrate to produce high-grade explosives. Some quite powerful
ones aren't as deliquescent as nitromethane, giving the impression that
they might be more desirable than nitromethane. One formula that is currently
making the rounds among survivors involves mixing two parts of NH4NO3 with
one part hydrazine. The resulting liquids reportedly make up the most powerful
chemical explosive known to manshort of an actual atomic reaction. An almost
insurmountable problem with this explosive is the fact that anhydrous hydrazine
is extremely corrosive and therefore desperately difficult to handle. It
will blister an animal's lungs with just one diluted whiff. Professional
industrial chemists use moon suits, respirators, and supplemental air sup-
plies and still are very reluctant to do any more than a minimum amount
of work with this chemical. Eventually it will eat through virtually anything
metallic, making it almost impossible for survivors to store it at home.
Unvented hydrazine fumes kill very cruelly in a matter of seconds. As a
result, the material is almost impossible to ship. Most carriers justifiably
do not want to handle it, and partly as a result, it is also extremely
expensive to purchase. It usually costs about $100 per pound, but that
does not include shipping. Furthermore, it cannot be sent by United Parcel
Service, Federal Express, or parcel post. So home chemists must drive hundreds
of miles to pick it up personally or pay trucking charges of up to $25
or more per shipment. It is quite possible that three pounds of finished
explosive using hydrazine could cost $150 or more. When combined, the resulting
liquid is extremely corrosive, toxic, and shock-sensitive. I know of no
storage container that would hold the material. It can't be metallic and,
if a glass jar ever broke or spilled, cleanup might assume catastrophic
proportions. As a result, it doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa in chemistry
to conclude that the ammonium nitrate/nitromethane mixture is superior
for survivors' purposesðdespite a slightly diminished brisance. In
addition, hydrazine products require the use of sophisticated laboratory
equipment not usually available to survivors. Buying this equipment could
make the overall cost of the project prohibitively expensive for most budgets.
For the process recommended in these pages, one needs only common household
items: a set of ovenproof glass dishes; a standard measuring cup; a standard
probe thermometer; a coffee grinder; an electric wok; and a tea sieve.
There is no need for extra-large glass beakers to handle the reacting chemicals,
lab-accurate stainless thermometers, ice baths, air-evacuation equipment,
or moon suits and respirators. After nitromethane and ammonium nitrate
are combined, the mixture is reasonably safe and can be handled by most
people, whereas hydrazine is too unstable to carry around or combine at
the job site. Fumes from the reaction could poison everything downwind
for several hundred meters. It also might arouse people's suspicions to
see survivors running around in moon suits and respirators. Other formulas
for making C-4 substitutes abound, such as mixing pure nitric acid with
glycerin to yield nitroglycerine. Nitric acid is obtainable and can be
handled by amateur chemists, but it is somewhat risky. Homemade nitroglycerine
must be washed and purified to an extent that taxes the skills of sometimes
chemists. Impure nitroglycerine grows increasingly sensitive on the shelf
until simply moving the container could cause premature detonation. After
my reading through detailed manufacturing instructions, it was easy to
conclude that this process is unnecessarily difficult and dangerous. In
summary, the explosive made by mixing ammonium nitrate with nitromethane
seems to possess all of the desirable characteristics of highgrade military
explosives that are otherwise unavailable to survivors. The process has
few disadvantages that I have been able to identify. Note: Readers will
note that throughout this discussion I have assumed the use of commercial
safety fuze and caps or standard electrically fired dynamite caps. This
book assumes that makers already know enough about explosives to know where
to purchase the necessary caps and fuze. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
This text is a chapter in the book "Ragnar's Big Book of Homemade Weapons"
and the ISBN # is 0-87364-660-6 if you would want to order it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------