Baratol

Baratol is an explosive made of a mixture of TNT and barium nitrate, with a small quantity (about 1%)[1] of paraffin wax used as a phlegmatizing agent. TNT typically makes up 25–33% of the mixture. Because of the high density of barium nitrate, Baratol has a density of at least 2.5.

Baratol was used as the "slow" compound in the explosive lenses of early atomic bombs with Composition B often used as the "fast" explosive component. Atomic bombs like those detonated in 1945 at Trinity, the Soviet Joe 1 in 1949, and in India in 1972, used Baratol and Composition B.[1]

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

Baratol has a detonation velocity of approximately 4,900 metres per second.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Explosives - Compounds
  2. ↑ High explosive compound - Patent 3956039
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