AbstractsChemistry

The importance and tremendous advantages of a truly flashless propellent for combat use by army, naval and anti-craft units, particularly at night, are self-evident. Just after the last Great War, nitroguanidine, a previously known compound of only academic interest, was found to be an explosive equal in force to T.N.T., and possessing the exceptional property of exploding with a cool flame and hardly any visible flash (1). When this compound was incorporated with nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine, the resulting cordite was found to possess both the cool explosion temperature of nitroguanidine and the same propellant power of ordinary cordite. Picrite, as nitorguanidine is more commonly known, and flashless cordite containing Picrite, have several disadvantages, which if overcome would render more easy the preparation, and greatly improve the properties of this new type of propellent. It was during the course of a study, bent on improving Picrite or finding a substitute for it, that N-guanyl-N’-nitrourea was investigated. This compound, previously reported in the literature (2) has been thoroughly studied both from the technical and ballistic points of view by the Department of Munitions and Supply, and has been found to fulfill all the specifications required of the flashless component in flashless cordite. [...]