It crystallizes (in long needles) more easily when gently agitated during the cooling, or when mixed with such substances as kieselguhr.
For antiseptic purposes it has been prepared as "bromum solidificatum," which consists of kieselguhr or similar substance impregnated with about 75% of its weight of bromine.
A Larox peristaltic pump is one of the few that can handle kieselguhr.
Even then, however, the liquid nature of the substance, though advantageous in one or two directions, constituted a serious obstacle to its safe transport and storage and to its efficient employment; it was therefore not until Nobel produced plastic solid preparations by mixing the liquid with porous substances, such as gunpowder, or carbon and sulphur, and finally kieselguhr in a fine state of division, capable of absorbing and retaining considerable quantities of it, that it could be employed as a blasting agent (see Explosives, Dyna Mite, Cordite).