US1432321A - Explosive - Google Patents

Description

- Patented a. 17, 1922.

'D STATES TENNEY L. DAVIS, OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

EXPLOSI'VE.

No Drawing.

Application filed April 25, 1922. Serial No. 556,524.

(FILED manna 'rnn not or MARCH 3, 1883, 22 srar. L., 625.

To all whom it may concern:

, Be it known that I, TENNEY L. DAVIS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of :Somerville, county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Explosives, of Which the following is aspecification.

The invention described herein may be used by the Government, or any of its oflicers or employees in prosecution of work for the Government, or by any other person in the United States, without payment to me of any royalty thereon.

The subject of this invention is an explosive and the invention relates more specificall to a smokeless propellant powder.

The main object of the invention is the production of an explosive possessing the characteristic of progressive burning which will not deteriorate when stored for considerable lengths of time. 7

The explosive pentaerythrite tetranitrate, frequently known as tetranitropentaerythrite has'been used in primers, detonators and detonating fuses but it is also especially fitted for use in the manufacture of smokeless propellant powder because of its great chemical stability, it being apparently not subject to spontaneous decomposition during storage as are nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. Like nitroglycerine it contains an excess of oxygen and, for that reason it submits to being mixed with carbonaceous and combustible materials for the preparation of smokelesspowder which will burn at a lower temperature than pentaerythrite tetranitrate itself and which will produce a greater ballistic eifectper unit of Weight of combined nitro-group oxygen that it' contains.

A propellant powder in order to be satisfactory ballistically must be homogeneous (or at least), burning progressively at a rate and for a period of time which can be regulated accurately. Such a powder can be prepared from pentaerythrite tetranitrate by incorporatin with it other substances with which it orms a plastic homogeneous mass that can be molded into grains of the desired shape, and a smokeless propel- 5i lant powder consisting of pentaerythrite tetranitrate incorporated with other derivative of pentaerythrite, in particular the henzoate, andespecially the mixture of any or all of the mono-,, di-, tri-, and tetrabenzoates, 5:

has been made the subject of an earlier patent application, Serial No. 462,028, filed April 16, 1921.

I find that pentaerythrite tetrabenzoate alone incorporated with pentaerythrite tet- 6 ranitrate gives plastic masses that show a tendency to become brittle and crack, and that pentaerythrite cinnamate alone with pentaerythrite tetranitrate gives a hardand very tough material. A mixture of these 6 two materials yields with pentaerythrite tetranitrate a niass of the desired toughness and plasticity.

I claim:

1. An explosive composition, including 7 pentaerythrite tetranitrate, pentaerythrite tetrabenzoate and pentaerythrite cinnamate as in edients.

2. n explosivecomposition, comprising pentaerythrite tetranitrate, incorporated 7 with a mixtureof pentaerythrite tetra-benzoate and pentaerythrite cinnamate.

TENNEY L. DAVIS.