Snakes

[sambo]

I haven't given up looking at snakes, my EPP doesn't allow me to acquire HNO3 at sufficient concentration for the nitration of pitch but imminently it hopefull will. Nonetheless i've looked at a few mixes.

There is a very 'easy' mix that can be made with a 4:1 ratio of bicarbonate of soda and sugar if anyone wants to give it a try it's quite fun. I'm also looking at p-nitroaniline and some other similar compounds. I've spent several weeks creating the precursors for the latter and as you know I like enormously impractical projects of a chemical nature - in the past few weeks in order to synthesise the p-nitroanaline I have had to :

a) Convert Sodium Benzoate + Sodium Hydroxide to Benzene
b) Nitrate the Benzene to form Nitrobenzene ( this was a rather toxic and not fun experience )
c) Convert the Nitrobenzene to Aniline
d) Synthesise Acetyl Chloride from Acetonitrile and Acetic Acid with HCl gas
e) Convert the Acetyl Chloride ( amazing stuff as it decomposes immediately in air to concentrated hydrochloric acid and Acetic acid forming a thick vapour of corrosive acids ) to Acetic Anhydride

Over the next few days I'll be combining the products of c + e to form Acetanilide which I'll then form my p-nitroaniline.

Here's an example of the effect at work - cut to approx 1:10 in the video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdrI5RbP9tE

it's vaguely pyrotechnic ( vaguel ) - obviously I won't be forming any kind of useful mixture with concentrated sulphuric acid but I will give that demo a shot.

Sam

[Rob.L.]

Snakes eh!

I do have the classic Mercury ii thiocyanate in pellet form from a previous synthesis and also the license slot for higher strength HNO3 so if you've any useful info I could give it a go as well.

[Pyro-Gear]

Sure there is an over the counter pill for this?

[sambo]

Sure there is an over the counter pill for this?

Sorry Rob, i let you down with my tardiness. See below. Always wanted to make a foot in diameter giant pellet and ignite it !

(3) Snake composition

B.Lancaster described this item in detail, but a supplementary account is given here. Weigh out 1000 g of pitch and place it in a thick aluminium bowl. Add 200 g of linseed oil and mix well. Add.l4OO g of 98% nitric acid, drop by drop, slowly stirring the mixture with an aluminium rod. A violent reaction will occur with red nitrogen dioxide fumes, heat being generated. Cool from the outside with water. Stir the mixture continuously, and it will become a hot molten mass as the reaction proceeds. The temperature of the mass rises to about 200°C and the time of operation is about 15~20 minutes. If a fire occurs at a point on the surface, stir the mixture to submerge the fire and extinguish it. If the whole surface is on fire, pour water on it, but in this case the mixture will become useless. Continue stirring after all the nitric acid is charged until the reaction ceases. Take the mixture out of the bowl, spread it on an aluminium plate and leave it to cool naturally. Pulverization. The nitrated pitch becomes brittle on cooling. Crush it with a wooden mallet and pulverize it in a ball mill. Washing and drying. According to R.Lancaster this washing is unnecessary. But in Japan it is washed in water, because the nitrated pitch contains a small amount of acid, about 0.15% nitric acid, and it is thought that the remaining acid is a common cause of fire. Add the pulverized nitrated pitch to hot water at less than 70°C. If the temperature exceeds 70°C, the nitrated pitch often melts into a mass. Filter it with a vacuum filter. Wash the residue with 10 g sodium carbonate solution in 7000 cc water, pouring it into the filter. Then wash the residue with water again. Dry it in the sun. Take care that spontaneous ignition does not occur during the drying process described above. The yield is about 1300 g of nitrated pitch from 1000 g of the raw pitch. Composition. The well dried nitrated pitch powder is mixed with an oxidizer which is necessary for burning. An example is shown as follows: „, , , For hand For machine Black snake: press press Nitrated pitch 75 % 72 % Ammonium perchlorate 25 28 Soluble glutinous rice starch - 2(Additional percent)

The composition for the hand press is damped with gum arabic solution in water when it is shaped. The content of the nitrated pitch for the machine press is smaller than that for hand press so that it is easily burnt, even when it is shaped into pellets under high pressure. For use in a machine the composition must be previously granulated. Shaping. The compositions are shaped into pellets with a hand press or a rotary machine. According to Weingart and Lancaster it is important to obtain a good pitch as the raw material e.g. the residue from the distillation of beta-naphthol, but the author does not find it easy to get this material at present. In Japan ordinary coal pitch is used but it has a defect for it produces much soot and smoke.

[Rob.L.]

Great, Thanks.

Just to clear a possible typo. Does it read 1400g of HNO3 or 400g? I suspect the latter but have to be sure.

When this is attempted the amounts will be much scaled down as I usually only produce a max of 50ml of HNO3 at this concentration and it CANNOT be stored outside of a deep freeze (cold and dark) in anything less than fluoropolymer bottles. (my personal rule for good reason I won't bore you with now)

The bitumen I have is standard roofers bitumen, to get the real deal spoken of here would involve me producing huge amounts of 2-napthol and distilling it without looking elsewhere for a source. Not going to happen!

[sambo]

Sorry mate, it is 1400g of HNO3. It would be interesting to know if this could be done with less than 98% HNO3. In fact, I might experiment myself. One thought would be to add Concentrated sulphuric acid to the nitric acid to dehydrate it, much the same as you would when nitrating cotton for guncotton - i suspect that would work. From what Lloyd helpfully suggested previously roofers bitumen is just the ticket.

Sam