290 CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY OF EXPLOSIVES
(10)3,5-Dinitrotoluene, difficult to obtain by direct nitration, may be prepared
in the following way:(11)3,6 (or 2,5-)-Dinitrotoluene was obtained by Page and Heasman [33] by the
oxidation of 5-nitro-o-toluidine with Caro’s acid.
All other isomers are prepared by nitration of m- nitrotoluene, followed by
fractional crystallization of the product.α− TRINITROTOLUENE (TNT)The commercial product for military purposes consists of α− trinitrotoluene
(2,4,6-isomer) of high purity.In the explosives industry it is known under various names: Tolite (France);
Tri, Trotyl, Tutol, Trinol. Füllpulver 1902 - abbreviation Fp02 (Germany); Tri-
tolo (Italy); Trotyl and TNT (Poland); Trillit, Tolita (Spain); TNT (United
Kingdom and U. S. A.); Tol, Trotil, TNT (U. S. S. R.).
Trinitrotoluene was first mentioned in 1863. It was obtained by Wilbrand [34],
who treated toluene with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids at a temperature