Experiment 27. If some gunpowder be wrapped in tin foil, and placed on a glass plate, and the two wires of a galvanic battery brought in contact with the foil; the foil will inflame and explode the powder.
Experiment 28. Mix in a mortar one part of sulphuret of potassa with two parts of nitrate of potassa, and expose the mixture to the action of heat in the same manner as fulminating powder: a violent detonation will take place. The sulphuret of potassa is recommended, in lieu of potassa and sulphur in a separate state; and although called Bergman's fulminating powder, this compound is in fact, according to the theory of its explosion, the same as the ordinary fulminating powder.
Experiment 29. If, says Morey, (Silliman's Journal ii, 21), a given quantity of strongly compressed boiling water, be suddenly discharged into about an equal quantity of oil or rosin, at or near the boiling point, it will explode, to every appearance, as quickly and violently as gunpowder.
Experiment 30. If zinc or iron filings, or pulverized antimony, be mixed with chlorate of potassa, and struck with a hammer, violent detonations will ensue. If sulphuret of iron be used, the same effect will ensue. See MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin's communication to the Société Philomatique, in their Transactions.
Experiment 31. If oxide of mercury, obtained from its solution in nitric acid by means of caustic potassa, be dried, and mixed with flowers of sulphur, and struck with a hammer, a detonation will be produced. (See Journal de Physique, 1779.)
Experiment 32. If alcohol or ether be mixed with chlorate of potassa, into a thick paste, and the mixture struck with a hammer, an explosion will be the consequence: or,
Experiment 33. If, instead of alcohol or ether, we make use of fixed or volatile oils, and proceed in the same manner, the same effect will ensue.
Experiment 34. If a small portion of chloride of azote (Detonating oil) be dropped into a solution of phosphorus in ether or alcohol, a violent explosion will take place: or,
Experiment 35. If in the place of phosphorized ether, other oils, as camphorated oil, palm oil, whale oil, linseed oil, sulphuretted oil, oil of turpentine, naphtha, &c. be brought in contact, the same effect will ensue.
Experiment 36. Chloride of azote will also detonate with sundry gaseous and solid substances, as supersulphuretted hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, phosphuretted hydrogen, nitrous gas, aqueous ammonia, phosphuret of lime, ambergris, fused potassa, and sundry metallic soaps. Messrs. Porret, Wilson, and Kirk, brought one hundred and twenty-five substances in contact with it, and twenty-eight of the number produced detonations. (Nicholson's Journal, vol. 34.)