{{Short description|Explosive blend}} '''Baratol''' is an explosive made of a mixture of TNT and barium nitrate, with a small quantity (about 1%)<ref name="Explosives - Compounds">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/explosives-compositions.htm Explosives - Compounds<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> of paraffin wax used as a phlegmatizing agent. TNT typically makes up 25% to 33% of the mixture. Because of the high density of barium nitrate, Baratol has a density of at least 2.5 g/cm<sup>3</sup>.
Baratol, which has a detonation velocity of only about 4,900 metres per second,<ref>[http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3956039.html High explosive compound - Patent 3956039<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> was used as the slow-detonating explosive in the explosive lenses of some early atomic bomb designs, with Composition B often used as the fast-detonating component. Atomic bombs detonated at Trinity in 1945, the Soviet Joe 1 in 1949, and in India in 1972 all used Baratol and Composition B.<ref name="Explosives - Compounds"/>
Baratol was also used in the Mills bomb, a British hand grenade.
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Refimprove|date=November 2016}}
Category:Explosives Category:Trinitrotoluene Category:British inventions
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