Any of you ever handled or even seen ammonium nitrate? I live in a rural area where we use it for fertilizer. I have a bottle of oxygen in my garage as part of a cutting torch. I have messed with nitrous oxide on drag cars. Believe me, if any of them were flammable ON THEIR OWN I'd know.
Yes, I've swamped ammonium nitrate hopper cars, the dust dried out the roof of my mouth and smelled like forgotten laundry. And this was at a site where it was used to "fertilize" coal mines as ANFO. One of the things Dad told me is run until you collapse if it ever catches fire. The stuff can and does violently decompose on its own if it gets hot enough and pressurized enough, and so does nitrous oxide. We know this from both the first principles of chemistry and the historical record. Oxygen does not, however acetylene does, and you should know that if you hang around cutting torches.
Any of you ever handled or even seen ammonium nitrate? I live in a rural area where we use it for fertilizer. I have a bottle of oxygen in my garage as part of a cutting torch. I have messed with nitrous oxide on drag cars. Believe me, if any of them were flammable ON THEIR OWN I'd know.
Yes, I've swamped ammonium nitrate hopper cars, the dust dried out the roof of my mouth and smelled like forgotten laundry. And this was at a site where it was used to "fertilize" coal mines as ANFO. One of the things Dad told me is run until you collapse if it ever catches fire. The stuff can and does violently decompose on its own if it gets hot enough and pressurized enough, and so does nitrous oxide. We know this from both the first principles of chemistry and the historical record. Oxygen does not, however acetylene does, and you should know that if you hang around cutting torches.