Interestingly enough, Potassium Chlorate was the go to primer composition until about 1930, it was the byproduct of this that caused the rapid rust problems experienced.
It brings me to a course I did back in my Super Grunt days at the Pioneer Wing at Singleton.
The course was broken into two groups, each to booby trap a building.....losers get to be blown up.
Well I headed into the local chemist shop for a bit of non military thinking, Potassium crystals, Iodide crystals and Ammonia.
You chemistry kids are probably way ahead of me by now.
Yep , mixed up a batch of touch powder with a drop of Potassium to give it greater boot.
So we set the joint up with various switches and traps, poured a bit of my solution on the steps on the way out, and headed off to watch the fun.
Big problem I had was an over curious Instructor, he kept stepping on the crystals as they grew in the sun, luckily there were enough there to give the opposition a great welcome to the dirty tricks, they got caught by three devices that day, while we had a clean sheet, deactivating all off their devices....fun was the go back in those days.Information
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