Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Aug 3, 2026

Baratol

Baratol is an explosive made of a mixture of TNT and barium nitrate, with about 1% of paraffin wax acting as a phlegmatizing agent. TNT typically makes up 25% to 33% of the mixture.

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Aug 3, 2026
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Baratol is an explosive made of a mixture of TNT and barium nitrate, with about 1% of paraffin wax acting as a phlegmatizing agent. TNT typically makes up 25% to 33% of the mixture.1

Baratol, which has a detonation velocity of only about 4,870 m/s (16,000 ft/s)a at a cast density of 2.55 g/cm3 (159 lb/cu ft),2 was used as the slow-detonating explosive in the explosive lenses of implosion-type nuclear weapons, with Composition B often used as the fast-detonating component, including the United States Gadget and Fat Man bombs; the Soviet Union and India also reportedly used Baratol on the Joe 1 and Smiling Buddha bombs.1

Baratol was also used in the Mills bomb, a British hand grenade.

Notes

Notes

  1. For comparison, the fastest filler used in explosive lenses, HMX has a detonation velocity of 9,110 m/s (29,900 ft/s) at a pressed density of 1.89 g/cm3 (118 lb/cu ft).2
References

References

  1. Garrett, Benjamin C. (2017). Historical Dictionary of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-5381-0684-6 – via Google Books.
  2. Agrawal, Jai Prakash (2015). High Energy Materials: Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. p. 57. ISBN 978-3-527-80268-5 – via Google Books.