Editing TNT (section)

== History ==
TNT was first synthesized in 1861 by German [[chemist]] [[Julius Wilbrand]]<ref>{{cite journal|year=1861|title=Notiz über Trinitrotoluol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qmgTAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA178|journal=[[Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie]]|volume=128|issue=2|pages=178–179|doi=10.1002/jlac.18631280206|author=Wilbrand, J.}}</ref> and was originally used as a yellow dye. Its potential as an explosive was not recognized for three decades, mainly because it was so much less sensitive than other explosives known at the time. Its explosive properties were discovered in 1891 by another German chemist, Carl Häussermann.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter O. K. Krehl|title=History of Shock Waves, Explosions and Impact: A Chronological and Biographical Reference|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmuqCHDC3pwC&pg=PA404|year=2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-540-30421-0|page=404}}</ref> TNT can be safely poured when liquid into shell cases, and is so insensitive that in 1910 it was exempted from the UK's [[History of fire safety legislation in the United Kingdom#Explosives_Act_1875|Explosives Act 1875]] and was not considered an explosive for the purposes of manufacture and storage.<ref name="brown">{{Cite book|title=The Big Bang: a History of Explosives|publisher=Sutton Publishing|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7509-1878-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bigbanghistoryof00brow/page/151 151–153]|author=Brown GI|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bigbanghistoryof00brow/page/151}}</ref>

The German armed forces adopted it as a filling for [[artillery]] [[shell (projectile)|shells]] in 1902. TNT-filled [[Armour-piercing ammunition|armour-piercing]] shells would explode after they had penetrated the armour of British [[capital ship]]s, whereas the British [[Picric acid|Lyddite]]-filled shells tended to explode upon striking armour, thus expending much of their energy outside the ship.<ref name="brown"/> The British started replacing Lyddite with TNT in 1907.<ref>{{cite book |title=Arrows to Atom Bombs: A History of the Ordnance Board |author1=Norman Skentelbery |edition=2nd |publisher=Ordnance Board |year=1975 |page=99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ySQGAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

The [[United States Navy]] continued filling [[armour-piercing]] shells with [[Dunnite|explosive D]] after some other nations had switched to TNT, but began filling [[naval mine]]s, [[bomb]]s, [[depth charge]]s, and [[torpedo]] warheads with burster charges of crude grade B TNT with the color of brown sugar and requiring an [[explosive booster]] charge of granular crystallized grade A TNT for detonation.  High-explosive shells were filled with grade A TNT, which became preferred for other uses as industrial chemical capacity became available for removing [[xylene]] and similar [[hydrocarbon]]s from the toluene feedstock and other [[nitrotoluene]] [[isomer]] byproducts from the nitrating reactions.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Naval Ordnance|publisher=Lord Baltimore Press|year=1921|pages=49–52|author=Fairfield AP}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Trinitrotoluen.JPG|Chunks of explosives-grade TNT
File:Tání TNT při 81 °C.JPG|Trinitrotoluene melting at {{convert|81|C|F}}
File:11th_Marine_Regiment_Desert_Fire_Exercise_130423-M-VH365-119.jpg|[[M795]] artillery shells with [[fuze]]s fitted, labelled to indicate a filling of TNT
Image:USMC-100414-M-5241M-001.jpg|[[M107 projectile|M107]] artillery shells. All are labelled to indicate a filling of "[[Composition B|Comp B]]" (mixture of TNT and [[RDX]]) and have [[fuze]]s fitted
File:X4_RAK_ammo.jpg|A group of [[M120 Rak]] mortar shells. The dark green shells on the left are stencilled to indicate a filling of TNT 
File:TNT Allocations Germany.gif|Analysis of TNT production by branch of the German armed forces between 1941 and the first quarter of 1944, shown in thousands of tons per month
File:TNT detonation on Kaho'olawe Island during Operation Sailor Hat, shot Bravo, 1965.jpg|[[Detonation]] of the 500-ton TNT explosive charge as part of [[Operation Sailor Hat]] in 1965. The passing blast-wave left a white water surface behind and a white [[condensation cloud]] is visible overhead.
</gallery>