Aunt Jemima Explosive





Science in World War II Chemistry : A History of the Chemical Components of the National Defense Research Committee 1940-1946

W. A. Noyes, Jr. Editor

Little, Brown and Company Boston, 1948



Another Division of NDRC had rather unique requirements for an explosive, and Dr. G. B. Kistiakowsky suggested these could be met by a mixture of a high explosive and flour. This mixture had almost exactly the appearance and properties of flour and in some circles there was concern that it might fall out of military hands and be used as flour. It was, therefore, thought necessary to insist upon a material which, if used in this way, not only would not explode during cooking but would be nontoxic. On this basis, most of the standard explosives would not be satisfactory because of their toxicity when taken internally. It was found that one of the new explosives was sufficiently nontoxic so that an individual at one meal would be unlikely to eat enough baked product from this mixture -- often referred to as "Aunt Jemima" -- to suffer seriously. The research group at ERL worked under Dr. Russell McGill became quite adept at making biscuits and pancakes, much to the bewilderment of laboratory personnel who happened to see the bakery in operation without knowing the objectives. A process was then developed to produce this explosive in large enough quantities to meet the special requirements for which the flour mixture was eventually to be used.



"Space does not permit a complete list of all the compounds which were prepared in the synthetic program.... the following types of compounds were synthesized: furan, cyclohexane, naphthalene, melamine, piperazine, and paraffins."





Anyone know what the explosive use was? The only new explosives named are DINA and Fivonite.



