Retired professional wildlands firefighter here. We used celluloid ping pong balls containing a small amount of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) injected with a small shot of glycol for back burning and other intentional ignition operations The resulting exothermic reaction would ignite the celluloid (a product of nitrocellulose and camphor).
I love the new format when it comes to expressing concerns, having said every danger involved in the procedure is very helpfull and offers valuable information for any aspiring amateur chemist.
Right on, celluloid isn't as easy to make properly as it sounds. I was working on homebrew smokeless powder and tried celluloid along the way and it's HARD to get a really good product.
Right? I had no idea going into this that it would be so tough (I've done cellulose acetate and it was a breeze by comparison). It is remarkably difficult to get this stuff uniform in any way, even if the starting material is totally uniform.. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who struggled with this lol
@@integral_chemistryI don't know how they did it as evenly as they did industrially, maybe a mold floating in water to make it perfectly level? I asked in another comment if you were on discord but I figured you'd be more likely to see this.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252after seeing the stuff that he ran into in the video, and knowing a tiny bit about the techniques of the era, I have to think it was accomplished using a hell of a lot of excess solvent that was recovered during drying + letting really large vats of the stuff sit for a long time, allowing the sediment to collect at the bottom? As for how one would get film from the stuff, if I had to venture a guess, it would be achieved using a roll polymer process? That's a pretty classic plastics manufacturing technique for achieving high-consistency spools
Great video, man! I too have messed around with making the lacquer and was able to get a decently clear film going. This makes me want to try again. Thanks for sharing!
The best NC lacquer I ever made was back when I was a graduate student. I was doing my research in a molecular biology lab and did a lot of DNA and RNA assays (Northern and Southern blots) on NC filters. There was a lot of filter waste, and also all the assay filters that didn't work or didn't produce results. I saved all of that and dropped then in a little bottle with acetone; they dissolved slowly over a few days, but completely - giving a viscous clear solution. That was a very good lacquer.
The term shells dates the practice to the mid 19th century, but explosive projectiles were launched out of black powder powered artillery pieces much earlier. They were hollow spheres filled with black powder and had a fuse which was lit from the flash of the propelling charge. Sources vary from the late 14th century to the late 16th century as the first European experiments with mortar bombs as they were called then. This wide range perhaps reflects the difficulty of classifying historical texts and objects described in them.
One little talked about point in all the YT videos on NC is that it's inherently unstable over time. In the presence of air and moisture it decays with generation of nitric acid, and in extreme cases that can leas to autoignition. That is why single-base NC propellants fell out of favor around WWI as several accidents happened that led even to whole battleships exploding. Just washing it to remove all the initial acid isn't enough. Its stability can be improved by adding a small percentage of stabilizers that scavenge the produced acid, polyamines for instance (p-phenylenediamine is one). A cheap and easily available stabilizer is urea. After finishing washing the NC, soak it in a dilute solution of urea and let it dry without rinsing again, that will make it safer.
I think it was a test done to simulate a worst-case scenario, so its a lot more film than they'd probably ever store but yeah in principle its the same idea
@thethoughtemporium put together a setup for wet spinning he used for creating fibers out of milk. I'm pretty sure a similar process could be used to create fibers here.
❤❤happy new year 🎉! Okay now check this out: so apparently the new explosive kick was taking nitroguanidine and reducing the nitrogen group to amine, and I got to thinking, "I wonder if there's an aminocellulose". I imagine it wouldn't be energetic, but it would have some interesting properties and uses. I imagine you could make it. ❤❤btw, waterproof fuses are coated in NC 😉
Weird, 3 days ago I was looking into this because of the LA fires and the Eucalyptus trees exploding on them, then I remember the MythBusters myth about the common substance that can be turned into a high yield ex plo sive. Turns out you can extract lots of nitrocellulose from eucalyptus trees and that is why when exposed to high temperature they go boom. o_ O Coinkydink or does the algorithm know something.
Hey there, please do some experiments on fire retardants and fire extinguishing media. Would be awesome, as you know LA is now experiencing severe weather conditions due to wildfire
@@integral_chemistry yeah it's pretty unreal, the females also have this sperm storage, they can lay fertilised eggs for years off one mating session 😂
@@integral_chemistry another strange little tidbit of turtle knowledge is the females can store sperms for years, and lay multiple clusters because of it 😂
@@integral_chemistryisn't that cool? Turtles are awesome! Testudines are some of the coolest reptiles out there and some of the different species will absolutely blow your mind. I recommend looking up the mata mata turtle and side-necked turtles for anyone else reading this. Such awesome creatures! 🐢
5:14 I would be interested in this process from a historical perspective and how they determined what propellant/explosives grade nitration occurred. From my experience when I was younger making it , it was rather straight forward of a reaction. Back then , I never knew further refinement was possible and in what applications it would be worth it for the amateur chemist. I guess currently, a higher refined product would be useful to know considering the powder shortages we have in North America. I think you would be safe making the content here so long as you kept the historical context in and keep the amount you make to a minimum for proof of concept. Additionally going into the historic and catastrophic events that happened learning about the manufacturing of nitrocellulose which leads to todays strict guidelines for munition plants would be greatly beneficial. Especially considering the amount of lives that changed for the worse in the course of history.
Retired professional wildlands firefighter here. We used celluloid ping pong balls containing a small amount of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) injected with a small shot of glycol for back burning and other intentional ignition operations The resulting exothermic reaction would ignite the celluloid (a product of nitrocellulose and camphor).
My dad told me about these but I think he became a fuels management specialist/line manager before he got a chance to use them ever.
I love the new format when it comes to expressing concerns, having said every danger involved in the procedure is very helpfull and offers valuable information for any aspiring amateur chemist.
Right on, celluloid isn't as easy to make properly as it sounds. I was working on homebrew smokeless powder and tried celluloid along the way and it's HARD to get a really good product.
Right? I had no idea going into this that it would be so tough (I've done cellulose acetate and it was a breeze by comparison). It is remarkably difficult to get this stuff uniform in any way, even if the starting material is totally uniform..
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who struggled with this lol
@@integral_chemistryI don't know how they did it as evenly as they did industrially, maybe a mold floating in water to make it perfectly level? I asked in another comment if you were on discord but I figured you'd be more likely to see this.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252after seeing the stuff that he ran into in the video, and knowing a tiny bit about the techniques of the era, I have to think it was accomplished using a hell of a lot of excess solvent that was recovered during drying + letting really large vats of the stuff sit for a long time, allowing the sediment to collect at the bottom? As for how one would get film from the stuff, if I had to venture a guess, it would be achieved using a roll polymer process? That's a pretty classic plastics manufacturing technique for achieving high-consistency spools
Great video, man! I too have messed around with making the lacquer and was able to get a decently clear film going. This makes me want to try again. Thanks for sharing!
The best NC lacquer I ever made was back when I was a graduate student. I was doing my research in a molecular biology lab and did a lot of DNA and RNA assays (Northern and Southern blots) on NC filters. There was a lot of filter waste, and also all the assay filters that didn't work or didn't produce results. I saved all of that and dropped then in a little bottle with acetone; they dissolved slowly over a few days, but completely - giving a viscous clear solution. That was a very good lacquer.
The term shells dates the practice to the mid 19th century, but explosive projectiles were launched out of black powder powered artillery pieces much earlier. They were hollow spheres filled with black powder and had a fuse which was lit from the flash of the propelling charge. Sources vary from the late 14th century to the late 16th century as the first European experiments with mortar bombs as they were called then. This wide range perhaps reflects the difficulty of classifying historical texts and objects described in them.
One little talked about point in all the YT videos on NC is that it's inherently unstable over time. In the presence of air and moisture it decays with generation of nitric acid, and in extreme cases that can leas to autoignition. That is why single-base NC propellants fell out of favor around WWI as several accidents happened that led even to whole battleships exploding. Just washing it to remove all the initial acid isn't enough. Its stability can be improved by adding a small percentage of stabilizers that scavenge the produced acid, polyamines for instance (p-phenylenediamine is one). A cheap and easily available stabilizer is urea. After finishing washing the NC, soak it in a dilute solution of urea and let it dry without rinsing again, that will make it safer.
Thanks for exploration of plastic side of this lovely compound. I always wanted to try this myself.
Thank you for making these amazing videos! You are doing amazing work!
I like this one. Good work and fascinating history.
Eyyyy new vid! This will probably be the first/only energetic i attempt to make since, tbh, they scare the hell out of me.
Cellulose Acetate would be a great sequel project!
Or Camphor (Total) Synthesis!
10:33 thats its the fire a cinema projector could generate?
I think it was a test done to simulate a worst-case scenario, so its a lot more film than they'd probably ever store but yeah in principle its the same idea
Thank you. The nitrocellulose does occur naturally in the cotton of kapok tree. We play with it in our childhood for its spontaneous burning.❤
Guitars also use banana oil as a solvent rather than acetone. Longer working time.
you could probably get a really thin film if you use something akin to a spin coater, you would likely end up with a thin and even film.
@thethoughtemporium put together a setup for wet spinning he used for creating fibers out of milk. I'm pretty sure a similar process could be used to create fibers here.
❤❤happy new year 🎉! Okay now check this out: so apparently the new explosive kick was taking nitroguanidine and reducing the nitrogen group to amine, and I got to thinking, "I wonder if there's an aminocellulose". I imagine it wouldn't be energetic, but it would have some interesting properties and uses. I imagine you could make it. ❤❤btw, waterproof fuses are coated in NC 😉
Weird, 3 days ago I was looking into this because of the LA fires and the Eucalyptus trees exploding on them, then I remember the MythBusters myth about the common substance that can be turned into a high yield ex plo sive. Turns out you can extract lots of nitrocellulose from eucalyptus trees and that is why when exposed to high temperature they go boom. o_ O Coinkydink or does the algorithm know something.
Really?? That is honestly fascinating, I had no clue that was a thing..
And yeah.. the algorithm probably knows something lol
@@integral_chemistry The bark is FULL of phenols, and it's an oil producing tree. Both can be extracted for multiple uses.
Hey there, please do some experiments on fire retardants and fire extinguishing media.
Would be awesome, as you know LA is now experiencing severe weather conditions due to wildfire
So you’re telling me you could nitrate a matchstick? That’d be a hell of a thing.
Are you on discord?
I am yes! But I have been known to disappear for days when I get super involved in a project.
@@integral_chemistryawesome, I'll send you a friend request.
Why did I think this was a Nile video until .5 seconds after I clicked?
YT already shadow banned this from my feed
banzai plastic also famous too sir not just weird thing like nitro i mean nitrocellulose plastic
Hi
Hi! Damn that was fast
Lovely
Make 30% hydrogen peroxide
i think turtles are pretty neat
They are! I didn't know until I was like 15 that their shell was actually just literally their spine
@@integral_chemistry yeah it's pretty unreal, the females also have this sperm storage, they can lay fertilised eggs for years off one mating session 😂
@@integral_chemistry another strange little tidbit of turtle knowledge is the females can store sperms for years, and lay multiple clusters because of it 😂
@@integral_chemistryisn't that cool? Turtles are awesome! Testudines are some of the coolest reptiles out there and some of the different species will absolutely blow your mind. I recommend looking up the mata mata turtle and side-necked turtles for anyone else reading this. Such awesome creatures! 🐢
Same
5:14 I would be interested in this process from a historical perspective and how they determined what propellant/explosives grade nitration occurred.
From my experience when I was younger making it , it was rather straight forward of a reaction. Back then , I never knew further refinement was possible and in what applications it would be worth it for the amateur chemist. I guess currently, a higher refined product would be useful to know considering the powder shortages we have in North America. I think you would be safe making the content here so long as you kept the historical context in and keep the amount you make to a minimum for proof of concept. Additionally going into the historic and catastrophic events that happened learning about the manufacturing of nitrocellulose which leads to todays strict guidelines for munition plants would be greatly beneficial. Especially considering the amount of lives that changed for the worse in the course of history.
Прикольный выпуск,так и надо делать смотреть интересней
I’ve been making stuff with this stuff for years 😊