COMMON NAME – Baratol

TYPE – High explosive mixture

DATE FIRST USED AS AN EXPLOSIVE – 1914

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Great Britain

COMPOSITION – 23.5% TNT, 75.5% Barium nitrate, 1% Paraffin wax

DENSITY – 2.61 g per ml

NORMAL STATE – Solid

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE/COLOR – Off-white to gray

INITIATION – Military blasting cap

SENSITIVITY – Relatively insensitive to shock or friction

STABILITY – Stable, nonhygroscopic

DETONATION VELOCITY – 4,870 m/s (15,978 fps)

RE FACTOR (BRISANCE) [TNT=1.0] – 0.61

TOXICITY – Can irritate skin and mucous membranes

MELTING POINT – 79^o to 80^o C.(174^o to 176^o F.)

IGNITION POINT – 385^o C.(725^o F.)

SOLUBILITY – Soluble in water 8.7 g per ml at 20^o C.

APPLICATIONS – PRINCIPLE USES – Explosive filler for ordnance, particularly hand grenades and mines and a demolition explosive. Component of explosive lens for the early implosion-type atomic bombs

     Effectively, this material is Amatol with the Ammonium nitrate replaced with Barium nitrate. Since Barium nitrate does not absorb water, Baratol has been used as a replacement for Amatols and Ammonals, particularly when the available supply of TNT has to be stretched out. The percentages of the mixture are not set and may be varied for the desired characteristics of the final product. The most common mixtures for the explosive are approximately 73% Barium Nitrate  to 27% TNT or 67% Barium Nitrate to 33% TNT. It is melt-loaded into ordnance and is a high explosive with one of the slowest detonation velocities. Baratol is considered to have very little difference between its effectiveness as an explosive and the more common Amatol except for its resistance to humidity.