Nitro

In Australia, nitromethane isn't sold with any kind of colouring. As far as I know, nitromethane is relatively safe and stable - it burns, but not as quickly nor as readily as petrol (gasoline). Nitromethane is not nitroglycerine.

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Yes, I know that nitromethane is not nitroglycerine, but it can become shock sensitive like nitroglycerine under certain circumstances. Age and heat are important factors.

It is funny how things change over time. I remember listening to various professional drag racers talking about this very subject in the Sixties. Were they wrong? If so, then I am wrong too. It happens now and then.

Ed Cregger

Age and heat within reason are not factors by themselves in making nitromethane shock sensitive. It will store perfectly at say 100 deg C and 10,000 years and not become shock sensitive. But there are other things you can put in it that make it shock sensitive without any age or heat at all. You could take fresh stuff and store it at minus 100 deg C then add the boosters and instantly have shock sensitive material that has been used as an industrial explosive. Why do you keep on putting nonsense on the discussion group? All you are doing is misleading people.

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To the very best of my knowledge, that is incorrect, age and (reasonable) heat are irrelevant. It is considerably safer than gasoline, considering the important parameters of flash point, autoignition temp and vapour pressure

While it is explosive, it is very, very insensitive. That can be changed by adding a sensitiser to make it into a useable explosive. PLX is the generic name for this, and "Kinepak" is at least one commercial version on sale. Some variant was almost certainly used to bring down Korean Air 858 back in 1987.

If there are documented cases of NM becoming shock sensitive, it's because some sensitizing agent was added, deliberately or accidentally. Incidentally, there's many sensitizing agents, including a few household materials.

It could be that they are wrong, It also could be that it's an urban myth. It could be that were boasting about their ability to handle an "explosive". It could be that they added (through ignorance) a sensitizing agent and did cause a problem. Who knows, well- documented cases are rare. There has been a couple, but they involved sensitizers or extreme impact.

All the world (except for Germany AFAIK) classifies NM as a flammable liquid, not an explosive. And large quantities of routinely shipped all over.

The moral here is to keep NM in its original clean container in a cool place. Don't mix it with other things, well other than methanol and oil. Failing that, give up modelling and take up chess.

Barry

| Did you know that a glass of water right out of the tap has the | potential explosive energy to vaporize you and your house? Not only | that it will kill everyone within quite a few miles around ground | zero if conducted properly.

Can you give us any examples of cases where these glasses of water exploded on their own? Exploded with anything less than an atomic bomb as an ignitor? (Do you have one of those in your kitchen too?) (And really, H-bombs don't just use glasses of tap water, but I'm sure you know that too.)

Nice rant, but you went a bit off the deep end on that one. You'd have done better to tell us of all the *other* dangers of DHMO and avoided any `explosive tendencies'.

| You better make sure you never get closer then a few miles to a | glass of water the rest of your life or it may go off.

Are you trying to accuse him of emitting massive amounts of high energy neutrons?

| A few minutes on the net and you could get enough information you | could probably manage to kill yourself and win a Darwin award.

To be fair, most readers of this group really aren't good candidates for Darwin awards. Merely killing yourself in a really stupid/dramatic way isn't sufficient -- you have to also do it before you have children, and I'd argue that you have to do it when you're young enough that you would have been likely to have children later had you survived.

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And why do you always act like a prick?

I learned, from very good teachers, that it is not nice to make another feel like an ass. Especially if they are an ass. It is then even more important then than at other times.

You seem to have joy in making others look and feel bad when they make a mistake. I feel sorry for your wife and children - if you have any.

I'm telling you what I honestly remember. Perhaps that is the problem.

Ed Cregger