Re: Gordon Moore on explosives, and semiconductors
- From: Jonathan Kirwan <jkirwan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 08:44:38 GMT
On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 01:08:18 -0700, "Max Hauser"
<maxREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
><snip>
>
>Moore spent some of his time on explosives, and their popularity as a
>motivator for technical careers, a popularity that proves to be surprisingly
>wide. That will presumably be the main interest in this note, but first a
>little more about semiconductors. (First the broccoli, then dessert!)
>
><snip>
>
>Moore was a chemist by training, and explained that he got into chemistry
>originally as a child because a neighbor got a chemistry set -- "they had
>good stuff in them in those days!" -- and quickly became skilled at blowing
>things up. He made nitroglycerin, which he would detonate by putting a
>drop on a piece of filter paper and striking it with a hammer on an iron
>anvil. This made a very sharp crack, and would leave his ears ringing for
>an hour or two. Moore explained that this damaged his hearing, and led to
>his later relying on a hearing aid. This was around Redwood City,
>California, where his father was a deputy sheriff. At one point, officials
>found a collection of tools somewhere that looked like they were for
>cracking open safes, and a little bottle of yellowish liquid, which had them
>concerned. As Moore told it, his father called him in on the case (he was
>still an adolescent) and he tested a drop of the liquid with his
>filter-paper technique, and it blew. The deputies were then worried about
>how to dispose of the nitro, but Moore stepped forward eagerly -- "I'll take
>care of that." (He held up both hands to us, in the proud sign of the
>successful explosives hobbyist: All digits present.) They also made
>rockets, he said, but good rockets were difficult -- "it was much easier to
>blow things up."
>
>Later at Cal Tech when he was a grad student in chemistry, someone did a
>survey and found that 80% of the Chem grad students got into it via
>fireworks and explosives. Amazing!
Sounds like my own childhood. I made nitroglycerin, mercury
fulminate, nitrogen triiodide, and a bevy of rocket fuels.
Fulminate was one of my favorite explosives. I used to place mercury
fulminate on a spoon and cup my hand over it and detonate it, leaving
a hole in the spoon and no injury to my hand. Let's see:
* mercury, tech grade, dissolve in:
* nitric acid, 70% (or RFNA), until fully dissolved, then add:
* ethyl alcohol, allow the exothermic reaction to boil;
* leaving crystals settling out at the bottom;
* dissolve, filter, and recrystalize using glacial acetic acid.
When using sugar and potassium nitrate to make rocket fuel, I noticed
that the flash point was only about 100 C above the melting point, so
I created a boiling sulfuric acid back in which to immerse a Florence
flask for melting the stuff. All this behind many tens of sand bags
to protect me during manufacture.
I designed and built rocket nozzles, based on information from Captain
Bertrand Brinley's Rocket Manual for Amateurs. These were made out of
steel on a small metal lathe. The tubes were SAE 1020 steel, 1/4"
thick, about 1.5" diameter. Flame temps are in the 2600 F range, as I
recall, for zinc/sulfur fuels. Design tube pressures were in the
1000-1400 psi area, if memory serves.
I experimented with Ammonium and Potassium Perchlorates, Potassium
Chlorate, Zinc, Sulfer, Ethylene Oxide, Picric Acid, white and yellow
phosphorus, and pretty much anything interesting I could lay my hands
on. And at the time, I could get Boulevard Labs in Chicago to ship me
pretty much anything, including RFNA, WFNA, 70% H2O2, and Picric Acid
(on trains, only, though.)
Never lost a body part, always launched rockets safely behind sand bag
barricades and in large areas, but I did suffer a bad burn or two.
Still have many pounds of some of the chemicals in my garage that I
sometimes use to make fireworks and so on.
Wonderful experience, almost entirely done solo and without adult
supervision or help, and it is what really got me reading and studying
science in earnest.
Jon
.
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