How to Make Nitroglycerin
By: Karl Marx

CH2ONO2
!                    3/2 N2 + 3 CO2
CHONO2  ---------->     +
!        Ignition    5/2 H2O + 1/4 O2
CH2ONO2

(How Nitro explodes--note that the byproducts are nothing but
nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water and oxygen)

Nitroglycerin [heretofore nitro] is a very powerful high explosive.  I am not
sure who invented it but he probably didn't -- the first person to make it
probably blew himself up and his freind got the info off his notes. Well
anyway, the next best thing to nitro is TNT which is ten times harder to make
but also ten times safer to make.  If you can't use common sense then don't
even TRY to make this stuff--a few drops can be lethal under certain
circumstances.


To Make Nitro:
== ==== ======

Mix 100 parts fuming nitric acid (for best results it should have a specific
gravity of 50 degrees Baume') with 200 parts sulphuric acid.  This is going to
be HOT at first--it won't splatter if you pour the nitric INTO the sulphuric
but don't try it the other way around. The acid solutions together can disolve
flesh in a matter of seconds so take the proper measures for God's sake!!!
When cool, add 38 parts glycerine as slowly as possible. Let it trickle down
the sides of the container into the acids or it won't mix thoroughly and the
reaction could go to fast--which causes enough heat to ignite the stuff.  Stir
with a **GLASS** rod for 15 seconds or so then CARFULLY pour it into 20 times
it's *VOLUME* of water.  It will visibly precipitate immediatly. There will be
twice as much nitro as you used glycerin and it is easy to separate.  Mix it
with baking soda as soon as you have separated it--this helps it not to go
off spontaneously.


  NOTES:  Parts are by weight and the Baume' scale of spicific gravity can be
          found in most chem. books.  You can get fuming nitric and sulfuric
          acids wherever good chemicals or fertilizers are sold.  It is
          positivly *STUPID* to make more than 200 grams of Nitro at a time.
          When mixing the stuff wear goggles, gloves, etc.  When I first made
          the stuff I had the honor of having it go off by itself (I added too
          much glycerine at a time.)  I was across the room at the time, but I
          felt the impact--so did the table it was on as well as the window it
          was next to--they were both smashed by only 25 grams in an open
          bowl. Oh, yes, glycerine you can get at any pharmacy and you need an
          adult signature for the acids.  Any bum can make Nitro go off if
          you don't add the bicarbonate of (baking) soda--but even with that,
          if it gets old I wouldn't play catch with it.

Once you have made the nitro and saturated it with bicarb, you can make a
really powerful explosive that won't go off by itself by simply mixing it with
as much cotton as you can and then saturating that with molten (parafin--just
enough to make it sealed and hard. Typically, use the same amounts (by weight)
of nitro, cotton and parafin.  This, when wrapped in newspaper, was once
known as "Norbin & Ohlsson's Patent Dynamite," but that was back in 1896.

