From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <-fGdnW87VbFyNHDcRVn-2g@comcast.com>,   
   Christopher M. Jones  wrote:   
   >A mixture of Nitrous Oxide and Hydrocarbons is pretty much a   
   >non-molecular analogue of any of the old-school, traditional   
   >explosives.   
      
   Kind of, sort of... but even with those, there's a range of explosive   
   behavior from "nothing short of a blasting cap upsets it" (or better) to   
   "detonates if you look at it cross-eyed" (or worse), and the difference   
   matters.   
      
   >For example, ... nitro-cellulose is just nitrated   
   >cellulose/glucose, nitro-glycerin is just triply nitrated glycerin.   
      
   And oddly enough, if you mix nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin -- each of   
   which, by itself, is temperamental and dangerous -- you get a wide range   
   of benign, docile, and quite non-explosive gun propellants, the double-base   
   smokeless powders.   
      
   The hope of people who come up with this particular idea is that N2O is so   
   stubbornly inert at (or below) room temperature by itself that maybe, just   
   maybe, it would stay that way if you mixed it with a non-aggressive fuel.   
      
   The idea is *not* obviously ridiculous.  There are, for example,   
   hydrogen-peroxide/fuel/water mixtures which are definitely, positively   
   non-explosive.  The water content typically has to be significant, but   
   then, peroxide is a lot less stable than N2O.   
      
   Unfortunately, while the idea is not obviously ridiculous, apparently it   
   doesn't actually work, at least not with any of the usual fuels.  Notably,   
   even surprisingly small amounts of hydrocarbons turn N2O into a dangerous   
   explosive.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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