What Makes Nitroglycerine and Guncotton Explode So Readily?
Let us now consider for the moment what it is that makes guncotton, nitroglycerine, and blasting gelatin explode so readily. The explanation is found in the presence in them of nitrogen. As you remember from what you learned about air, nitrogen is an extremely inactive element. It has no strong tendency to combine with other elements, and when it does enter into combination with them the compounds formed are almost always easily decomposed. In the compounds that have just been described a shock causes a loosening of the bonds that hold the nitrogen, and the whole compound goes to pieces just as an arch falls when the keystone is removed.