I stand corrected then, though I still bristle at the thought of any   
thermite mixture being labeled as 'milder' ... my field thermite  
experiences  have been all with Fe/Al mixes in the military and a  
summer job with the LIRR. I would just class it all as varying degrees  
of hell ... never once using the adjective 'milder' ... sigh

cheers BBR

On Mar 17, 2008, at 4:28 PM, William Chops Westfield wrote:

>
> On Mar 17, 2008, at 12:22 PM, Brian B. Riley wrote:
>
>> There's no such thing as 'milder thermite'
>
> That depends on how broadly you defined "thermite."  Traditional iron
> thermite is a member of a class of low gas solid phase oxidizer/metal
> "Goldschmidt reactions."  Depending on the choice of metal, oxidizer,
> and particle size, you can get reactions that go from a 30s/inch
> "delay" composition (tungsten/barium chromate) to near flash-powder
> burn rate and sensitivity (copper oxide/magnesium.)  There's a mix
> used in self-heating canned rations involving calcium silicide and
> iron oxide, for example...
>
> BillW
>
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