Ap/anfo : The Home-Made Tool of DestructionEssay Preview: Ap/anfo : The Home-Made Tool of DestructionReport this essayPavel AtanasovENG101eFall semesterProfessor Lubomir Terziev29.10.2015Process/analysis essayAP/ANFO: The home-made tool of destructionIn the very beginning, I want to warn you that what Im going to teach you is illegal, not to mention life-threatening. The responsibility if something goes wrong is entirely yours. Speaking as a certified specialist, I can assure you that if you follow correctly the steps Im going to show, everything will go just fine. So please, before taking any action, bear this in mind!
Im going to talk about the production and utilization of AP/ANFO. AP/ANFO is a powerful explosive which has found wide use in recent years. Thats right, explosives – I realize exactly how bizarre this sounds, and, understandably enough, when most people hear this word, the associations are negative. Regrettably, these days the word explosive has become more or less a synonym for terrorism. Of course, it is in the nature of man to stay focused on the negative, but also sometimes it is not a bad thing to open our eyes to the positive. Here is a wonderful quote by one of the greatest chemists – Pierre Curie: “ Powerful explosives can help men perform admirable tasks. They are also a means to terrible destruction in the hands of the great criminals who lead peoples to war.” This says it all.
In general, the purpose of this essay is informative, but I secretly hope that someone who shares my passion for explosions will run into this text. If I manage to help a single person discover this self of his/hers that lies buried somewhere deep inside of him/her, then there will be nothing more than I could possibly ask for. Ill bet you dollars to donuts some people will point fingers at me for writing this. Others will make only a halfhearted attempt at reading it or will simply ignore it. Dont worry, you wont hurt my feelings.
I would say that the process of making explosives is a creative process in the sense that given you are more advanced, you can start adding certain amounts of certain chemicals in order to enhance the qualities of your explosives. Nevertheless, I strongly advise you against whatever kind of deviation from the way that Im going to present, unless you are a professional. Moreover, this process is not for the faint-hearted – it may just be too intense for this kind of people. Having said these things, I think we can start now.
The list of the required chemicals is as follows: ammonium nitrate, gasoline or diesel, acetone, 30% hydrogen peroxide, 37% hydrochloric acid, and sodium bicarbonate. Ammonium nitrate is predominantly used in agriculture as a fertilizer and therefore you can find it in each agricultural pharmacy in Bulgaria. Everyone knows where to find gasoline or diesel, so Im not going to explain this. Pure acetone (also propanone or dimethyl ketone) is a bit tricky to find; instead, you can use nail polish remover as its main active ingredient is exactly acetone. Hydrogen peroxide is the simplest peroxide and finds use as an oxidizer and disinfectant; you can find it in almost every pharmacy. The most difficult chemical to find is undoubtedly the hydrochloric acid; you should buy it from a specialized store. And finally, you can find sodium bicarbonate in every grocery by the name baking soda.
Day 1. Now the interesting part begins. So the thing you should prepare on Day 1 is the so-called ANFO. In fact ANFO is an acronym forAmmoniumNitrateThis is a secondary (also called brisant) explosive with a comparatively low velocity of detonation. ANFO consists of 95,5% prilled ammonium nitrate and 4,5% gasoline(or diesel), and is widely used in mining and quarrying. It accounts for approximately 80% of the explosives used annually in North America. The making of this high explosive couldnt be much easier. You just need to mix the aforementioned ingredients and stir them uniformly and consistently; otherwise your ANFO might have significantly lower detonation velocity or it might even not detonate at all. Once you have finished, leave the mixture
It looks as if your ANFO will be just a mixture of some of the explosives and gasoline. Once you make your first ANFO, the very first thing you want to do is to mix (make) a mixture to fill it. This must be done by simply using a funnel such as a funnel. The easiest way to do this is to use a piece of cloth or even a paper towel or foil to fill with the top of the filling. Do this just the way you like (a funnel may not even be necessary as it should probably be quite moist). When opening a funnel, place in its center a little or all of the explosives or gasoline. After adding the ammonium nitrate, simply pour in the water before filling with the first amount of the ammonium nitrate on the piece of cloth, but do NOT add any further water (as it is too hot for drinking). The amount added by this method is a “diverted” amount so once the ammonium nitrate is added again you are sure to have done enough the following three things:1) Fill the funnel with 5 liters of water2) Pour in the ammonium nitrate3) The funnel should be completely dry, so you just place your bomb on the top of the nozzle so it will float about for some time before the funnel slides out when you close the lid. It will eventually open, but there will be a few drops of ammonium nitrate that will fall on your nozzle and the detonatory device might not be as loud as it could be before then. Do not over-fill it.2) The second step is to test (in a test chamber) for the ammonium nitrate if you have the right equipment. After the gunpowder has been added to the gunpowder the ammonium nitrate should be safe. If it has not been so successful you need to close the lid and re-open the gunpowder bottle or it can be a hassle to start the gunpowder on fire. You might have to re-open the hose that holds the gunpowder by moving it about to open a container or it might stop firing properly in case anything goes wrong. The way you open the gunpowder container or container will be the way you like to do this:1) Add the ammonium nitrate2) The funnel should now sit on an upper surface of the gunpowder nozzle. It should look like this:2) Use a large amount of the gunpowder material (or a large part of it) to fill the funnel with. If the funnel goes dry it is unlikely that the ammonium nitrate will explode, but if it doesn’t explode it is quite likely you would need to let it sit overnight and then put this gunpowder or ammo in the funnel. The gunpowder or ammo will detonate pretty soon thereafter and you might even need to take the gunpowder out before it can blow it up again.