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Baratol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baratol is an explosive made of a mixture of TNT and barium nitrate, with about 1% of paraffin wax acting as a phlegmatizing agent. TNT typically makes up 25% to 33% of the mixture.[1]

Baratol, which has a detonation velocity of only about 4,870 m/s (16,000 ft/s)[a] at a cast density of 2.55 g/cm3 (159 lb/cu ft),[2] was used as the slow-detonating explosive in the explosive lenses of implosion-type nuclear weapons, with Composition B often used as the fast-detonating component, including the United States Gadget and Fat Man bombs; the Soviet Union and India also reportedly used Baratol on the Joe 1 and Smiling Buddha bombs.[1]

Baratol was also used in the Mills bomb, a British hand grenade.

  1. For comparison, the fastest filler used in explosive lenses, HMX has a detonation velocity of 9,110 m/s (29,900 ft/s) at a pressed density of 1.89 g/cm3 (118 lb/cu ft).[2]

References

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  1. 1 2 Garrett, Benjamin C. (2017). Historical Dictionary of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-5381-0684-6 via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 Agrawal, Jai Prakash (2015). High Energy Materials: Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. p. 57. ISBN 978-3-527-80268-5 via Google Books.