Ecrasite

Ecrasite is an explosive material which is unaffected by moisture, shock or fire.{{cite book|author1=Ann Vandermeer|author2=Jeff VanderMeer|title=The Big Book of Classic Fantasy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6Z7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1310|date=2 July 2019|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-525-43557-0|pages=1310–}} It is a mixture of ammonium salts of cresol, phenol and various nitrocresols and nitrophenols principally trinitrocresol and picric acid. It was invented in 1888-1889 by two Austrian engineers named Siersch and Kubin, and used in Austria-Hungary to load artillery shells. Ecrasite was patented secretly, and its composition was once unknown.{{cite book|author=United States. Office of Naval Intelligence|title=General Information Series ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lv4_AAAAYAAJ|year=1891|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}

Ecrasite is prepared by the partial nitration of a crude mixture of cresol and phenol with a mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids and the neutralisation of the product with ammonia to produce a crude salt similar to ammonium picrate.

Ecrasite is a bright yellow solid. It is waxy to touch and melts at about 100 °C. When subjected to open flame, it burns without detonation, unless confined. It is insensitive to friction. It requires a detonator for initiation. Its general adoption was hindered by several unexplained explosions during loading into shells, which might have been caused by creation of unstable metal salts of trinitrocresol and/or trinitrophenol when the explosive came in contact with metals or alloys such as copper, brass (widely used for manufacturing detonator parts) and possibly other ones.[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15308 Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise by P. Gerald Sanford - Project Gutenberg]