464 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and the hill was strewn with splinters for 150 yards around; 

 a trench 24 feet long, nine feet wide, and three feet deep, was 

 made, in which a large number of soldiers might have found 

 a lodgment. 



The success of these experiments has suggested the appli- 

 cation of the lithofracteur in clearing openings through shoals 

 for the passage of ships, and it is said that a tubing for a 

 length of 1500 yards, filled with ten tons of this explosive, is 

 to be touched off n?ar Rotterdam for this purpose. 3 A, 

 3Iarch2, 1872, 181. 



STOWMAEKET GUN-COTTON EXPLOSION. 



The jury appointed to inquire into the causes of the gun- 

 cotton explosion at Stowmarket, England, by which several 

 lives were lost, have come to the conclusion that the pre- 

 pared cotton must have been tampered with, by the addition 

 of sulphuric acid, after it had passed the government test. 

 The evidence proved that, after the explosion, impure gun- 

 cotton was found in the factory, sulphuric acid being pres- 

 ent in quantity sufficient to lead to decomposition and ex- 

 plosion. The jury added to their verdict that, from the evi- 

 dence adduced, there appears to be no danger in the manu- 

 facture of gun-cotton by the wet process, but were of the 

 opinion that the drying and storing of gun-cotton should 

 not be allowed near a town. 20 A , September 16, 1871, 35]. 



FULMINITINE, A NEW EXPLOSIVE. 



A new explosive, named fulminitine, has been invented, dif- 

 fering from dynamite in having a much larger percentage 

 of nitro-glycerine. The 25 per cent, of infusorial earth con- 

 tained in dynamite is here replaced by 15 per cent, of a chem- 

 ical substance, which not only possesses a very much greater 

 affinity for the nitro-glycerine than the infusorial earth, but 

 differs from it in being entirely converted into gas by the ex- 

 plosion. In the combustion of the dynamite the silicious 

 earth remains as a wet powder ; while, after the burning of 

 the fulminitine, the only residuum is a black, carbonaceous 

 coating. The fulminitine, it is asserted, can be supplied at 

 as reasonable a price as the dynamite. 6 (?, February 1, 

 1872,48. 



