Nitroglycerin Mystery Solved

Amon Hobbes writes "It seems that some scientists at Duke University have unravelled the mysteries of How Nitroglycerin works [the heart medication]."

Comments

Re:such a big deal?

[david duncan scott]

So if I experience chest pains, I should swallow a grenade? Seems like that might work once...

Re:science "mysteries": a slashdot myth

[Lars T.]

Read this and be quiet when grown-ups talk.

Re:such a big deal?

[Governerd]

No. Only nitroglycerine in its pure form is explosive. In fact, pure nitro is never even used in grenades because it is so very unstable. A nitroglycerine grenade would probably never make it out of the factory, exploding sometime during the assembly process. Dynamite is essentially nitro in an inert matrix -- even sugar and clay were tried during the early days. However, when given in very small doses and rendered non-explosive by dilution with chemically inert materials, it can do really good things for heart patients.

Re:such a big deal?

[littlerubberfeet]

Now I must disagree. Nitroglycerine is made by combining Nitric acid with glycerin, very simply put. The second step to the process is filtering all the excess Nitrc acid out of the 'soup' Now why is this important? Because nitric acid makes Nitroglycerine unstable. Now, pure nitroglycerine is MUCH MUCH more stable then it is with impurities. There is actually an equation for the temperature of spontanious combustion based on the amount of Nitric acid left in the mixture.

Now, making a grenade out of nitroglycerin is easy, you just do the same thing you do with TNT and dynamite. You mix the Nitro with fine-powder sawdust, and it holds it in an easly managable paste.

OK, but who was the first guy to try it???

[sphealey]

Who was the first person to get the bright idea to try EATING nitroglycerin? Wouldn't that seem a bit, well, dangerous to you?

sPh