Miedziankit
Binary chlorate-based explosive
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miedziankit is a Polish explosive. It consists of 90% potassium chlorate and 10% kerosene.[1]
Miedziankit was developed by Polish chemist Stanisław Ignacy Łaszczyński and patented by him in 1909.[2] It was widely used in Germany, Poland, and Russia in the years around World War I, when nitrate-based explosives were needed for the war effort.[1]
It is a Sprengel explosive and can be prepared just before use by soaking chlorate cartridges in kerosene. Alternatively, it can be mixed at the factory, using kerosene with a high enough flash point (above 30 °C) to make the explosive safe for transport.[1]
When pressed in an iron tube to a density of 1.7 g/cm3, Miedziankit has a detonation velocity of 3000 m/s.[1] For comparison, "rackarock", a mixture of chlorate and nitrobenzene, invented by Divin in 1860 and patented in 1881, had velocity of 5,000 m/s.[3]
