What is the importance of mercury fulminate?

Mercury(II) fulminate, or Hg(CNO)2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators.

When was mercury fulminate discovered?

1800
In 1800 Howard reported his discovery of the highly explosive mercury fulminate by reacting mercury with alcohol and a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids (Howard, 1800). In his lengthy monograph he described its method of preparation, its chemical properties, and its remarkably violent detonating powers.

What do mercury tipped bullets do?

Mercury fulminate is a shock sensitive explosive. It is similar in function to the shock sensitive material in ammunition primers, often used to detonate other more powerful but less sensitive explosives. But it is still an explosive.

What are rifle primers made of?

Primers are made of a copper or brass alloy cup with a brass anvil and are filled with an impact-sensitive lead styphnate igniter. The metal parts of the primer are usually nickel-plated to resist corrosion. Propellants can vary from black gunpowder to a more modern smokeless powder which contains nitrocellulose.

How does mercury fulminate work?

Mercury fulminate is very sensitive to shock, friction, and sparks. It explosively decomposes to form mercury, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. This explosive power was used extensively: Alfred Nobel put mercury fulminate into blasting caps for detonating dynamite. Each mercury atom is surrounded by two carbon atoms.

What does fulminate mean?

: to utter or send out with denunciation fulminate a decree. intransitive verb. : to send forth censures or invectives fulminating against government regulators— Mark Singer. fulminate. noun.

How explosive is fulminated mercury?

When thrown with human force, the 50-gram piece of fulminated mercury they tested failed to explode; though it exploded once fitted with a blasting cap, it did not produce an explosion sufficient to blow out windows as seen on the show.

What are pistol primers?

In firearms and artillery, the primer (/ˈpraɪmər/) is the chemical and/or device responsible for initiating the propellant combustion that will push the projectiles out of the gun barrel. In smaller weapons the primer is usually of the first type and integrated into the base of a cartridge.

How does a gun primer work?

The purpose of a primer is to ignite the propellant powder in a given cartridge. To do this, the primer contains a very small amount of explosive held inside a metal primer cap. The stream of hot gas rapidly increases the temperature and pressure inside the cartridge case, igniting the propellant powder.

What does mercury fulminate look like?

Mercury fulminate (or fulminate of mercury, as Walt rightly calls it) Hg(ONC)2 is a very unstable and explosive compound. The crystals are usually brown to grey (due to colloidal mercury) and large crystals are extremely unstable.

What is fulminate ion?

The fulminate ion, CNO − , is a pseudohalic ion because its charge and reactivity are similar to those of the halogens. Due to the instability of the ion, fulminate salts are friction-sensitive explosives. The best known is mercury(II) fulminate, which has been used as a primary explosive in detonators.

When was mercury fulminate first used in primers?

Later, during the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, mercury fulminate became widely used in primers for self-contained rifle and pistol ammunition; it was the only practical detonator for firing projectiles until the early 20th century.

How did the use of brass and mercury fulminate solve the problem?

Initially the use of copper cartridge cases solved this problem. In 1869, Hobbs, by the use of internal varnishing of brass primer cups and brass cartridge cases, made the use of brass and mercury fulminate possible by preventing the direct contact of the brass surface with the primer mix.

When did the military start using non-mercuric primers?

In 1898 the U.S. military adopted a nonmercuric primer composition, coded H-48, for use in the .30 Krag cartridge. The primer composition was: Potassium chlorate 49.6\%

What is the chemical composition of ammunition primers?

Consequently, information on primer compositions and the chemical composition of ammunition is both sparse and fragmented in the literature. It is accepted by most writers that Reverend Forsyth’s percussion priming composition was based on mercury fulminate.