Important: Safety Warning
This page contains instructions involving gunpowder or other explosive or pyrotechnic compositions. Preparing explosives as described has caused severe injuries and deaths, and is illegal in most places.
In addition, this page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › Miscellaneous Chemicals › Nitric Ether
Nitric Ether
Take 50 parts nitric acid, specific gravity 1.375, dissolve in it 2 or 3 parts nitrate of urea, and add 50 parts alcohol. Distill until 7 of the whole has passed over; agitate the distillate with a little water to separate the ether, and preserve the heavier portion. It has a specific gravity of 1.112; its vapor is explosive when strongly heated, consequently great care is necessary in the distillation, to keep the heat down to the lowest working point, and to distill only small quantities at a time. (Millon.) (Sec directions for Sulphuric Ether, in No. 4280.)