On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Brian B. Riley wrote:

> Thermite is an an exchange reaction. The oxygen comes from the mix.
> 
> FE2O3 + 2Al  gives  Al2O3 + 2Fe + copious  amounts of heat.
> 
> It requires a lot of heat to get started, usually ignited with a  
> magnesium ribbon.
> 
> It was concocted to do field welds on railroad rails and was also  
> found to be very handy for sabotage. The reaction produces molten  
> iron, it doesn't burn through anything,   its just melts it. I had  
> thermite grenades taped to the bipod/tripod legs of all my machine  
> guns and mortars in Nam for quick access to destroy the weapon if we  
> ever got overrun, which, fortunately, I never had to do. I did once  
> raid a small NVA base camp and the thermite did a great job when left  
> on the engine blocks of some old French trucks they had.
> 
> I have no experience specifically with thermite inside a safe, but my  
> feeling is that  with the containment, the temps would get up to  
> several thousand degrees long before it melted through the steel  
> walls. There's no such thing as 'milder thermite' you would just have  
> to limit the amount or possibly contaminate the mix with something  
> inert like sand to slow it down..
> 
> cheers ... BBR

thermite is a name given to a group of compounds. Some mixes react much 
more viloently than others and WILL actually explode. These are simple 
mixes involving a metal oxide and a native metal. I wouldn't really like 
to menthion the exact metals involved here.

Regards
Sergio
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