Like all chemists I must advise you all to take the greatest care and caution 
when you are doing this. Even if you have made this stuff before. 

This 
first article will give you information on making nitroglyerin, the basic 
ingredient in a lot of explosives such as straight dynamites, and geletin 
dynamites. 

Making nitroglycerin 

1. Fill a 75-milliliter beaker 
to the 13 ml. Level with fuming red nitric acid, of 98% pure concentration. 

2. Place the beaker in an ice bath and allow to cool below room temp. 
3. 
After it has cooled, add to it three times the amount of fuming sulferic acid 
(99% h2so4). In other words, add to the now-cool fuming nitric acid 39 ml. Of 
fuming sulferic acid. When mixing any acids, always do it slowly and carefully 
to avoid splattering. 
4. When the two are mixed, lower thier temp. By adding 
more ice to the bath, about 10-15 degrees centigrade. (Use a mercury-operated 
thermometer) 
5. When the acid solution has cooled to the desired 
temperature, it is ready for the glycerin. The glycerin must be added in small 
amounts using a medicine dropper. (Read this step about 10 times!) Glycerin is 
added slowly and carefully (i mean careful!) Until the entire surface of the 
acid it covered with it. 
6. This is a dangerous point since the nitration 
will take place as soon as the glycerin is added. The nitration will produce 
heat, so the solution must be kept below 30 degrees centigrade! If the solution 
should go above 30 degrees, immediately dump the solution into the ice bath! 
This will insure that it does not go off in your face! 
7. For the first ten 
minutes of nitration, the mixture should be gently stirred. In a normal reaction 
the nitroglycerin will form as a layer on top of the acid solution, while the 
sulferic acid will absorb the excess water. 
8. After the nitration has taken 
place, and the nitroglycerin has formed on the top of the solution, the entire 
beaker should be transferred slowly and carefully to another beaker of water. 
When this is done the nitroglycerin will settle at the bottem so the other acids 
can be drained away. 
9. After removing as much acid as posible without 
disturbing the nitroglycerin, remove the nitroglycerin with an eyedropper and 
place it in a bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate in case you didn't know) 
solution. The sodium is an alkalai and will nuetralize much of the acid 
remaining. This process should be repeated as much as necesarry using blue 
litmus paper to check for the presence of acid. The remaining acid only makes 
the nitroglycerin more unstable than it already is. 
10. Finally! The final 
step is to remove the nitroglycerin from the bicarbonate. His is done with and 
eye- dropper, slowly and carefully. The usual test to see if nitration has been 
successful is to place one drop of the nitroglycerin on metal and ignite it. If 
it is true nitroglycerin it will burn with a clear blue flame. 

** 
Caution ** 

Nitro is very sensative to decomposition, heating dropping, 
or jarring, and may explode if left undisturbed and cool. 


-------------Jolly Roger 

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