Pyrotol

{{Short description|Explosive available for a time after World War I}}

{{About|pyrotol, the explosive|the industrial catalyst|pyrotol catalyst}}

Pyrotol was an explosive available for a time after World War I.{{cite book| author = Virginia. Dept. of Agriculture and Commerce| title = Yearbook 1922| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XbgjAQAAMAAJ| access-date = December 16, 2012| year = 1922| publisher = Virginia Department of Agriculture and Commerce| page = 125 }} It was reprocessed from military surplus, with a typical composition of 60% smokeless powder, 34% sodium nitrate, and 6% of 40% nitroglycerin dynamite.{{cite book| title = Wool Production, Extension Bulletin #136(Issues 135-184)| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YSw3AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA125| date = April 1926| publisher = State College of Washington| page = 74| quote = Pyrotol is a mixture of 60% smokeless powder, 34% sodium nitrate and 6% of 40% nitroglycerin dynamite. }} Usually used in combination with dynamite, it created an incendiary blast. Since it was very inexpensive, it was often used by farmers to remove tree stumps and clear ditches.{{cite book| last = Buhk| first = Tobin T.| title = True Crime: Michigan: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NN-tA-cUerIC&pg=PA52| access-date = December 16, 2012| year = 2011| publisher = Stackpole Books| isbn = 978-0-8117-0713-8 }} The substance was known for being used to commit the Bath School bombing in 1927.{{cite web|last=Gado|first=Mark|title=Hell Comes to Bath|url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/bath/builds_3.html|publisher=crimelibrary|access-date=December 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723221034/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/bath/builds_3.html|archive-date=July 23, 2012}}{{cite book| last = Schechter| first = Harold| title = Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=v_6ao_OuZbIC&pg=PA277| year = 2012| publisher = Random House Digital, Inc.| isbn = 978-0-345-52448-5| pages = 277–278 }} Distribution of pyrotol for farm use was discontinued in 1928, due to exhaustion of the supply of surplus explosives.{{cite web|title=Heavy Orders Cut Supply of Pyrtol|url=http://gfp.stparchive.com/Archive/GFP/GFP09301927P01.php|publisher=Granite Falls Record (Newspaper Archive of Granite Falls Historical Society, Granite Falls, Washington)|access-date=December 16, 2012|date=September 30, 1927}}

Pyrotol was intended to make a use after the war for a large surplus of smokeless powder. It was manufactured in a contract awarded to the DuPont Company and was created in three DuPont plants: Gibbstown, N.J., Barksdale, Wisconsin, and DuPont, Washington. The active ingredient of these cartridges, Pyrotol, was free, and included in the cartridge's price; the consumer paid for the preparation and freight of these cartridges.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sBYnAQAAIAAJ&dq=who+manufactured+pyrotol&pg=RA1-PA43 |title=Report - United States. Bureau of Public Roads - Google Books |year=1923 |access-date=2022-08-19}}

Pyrotol was said to cause no ill effects, like headaches, or staining hands or clothing, although the validity of this statement is unknown. A {{convert|6|oz|g|adj=on}} cartridge of pyrotol was said to be as powerful as an {{convert|8|oz|g|adj=on}} cartridge of dynamite, and came in {{convert|50|lb|kg|adj=on}} boxes containing 160 cartridges of the substance.{{Cite journal |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10919/90121 |hdl=10919/90121 |title=Project No. 10 – Land Clearing |website=Virginia Tech |year=1925 |last1=Seitz |first1=Charles E.}}