Chemistry and Technology of Explosives volume 1-4 by Tadeusz Urbanski

The book is a masterly treatise, reflecting the author’s intimate knowledge of his subject. The manufacture and chemical, physical, and physiological properties of nitro compounds of interest in the technology of explosives are given detailed treatment.
The explosives materials collection covered by this “cookbook” is not complete, of course. It will never be. It may anyway serve as a convenient guide for all occasional or professional users of explosives showing essentially what is available. Each one of the recipes is only a suggestion. It has been tried in this laboratory and it works, but it does not mean that a variation of the recipe does not work. In fact, the most of the recipes still permit substantial improvements. It may remain to the individual explosives materials chemist to work out such improvements. The book is well worth its relatively modest price and is recommended to all with interest in this interesting and actually little known area.