and Detonating Matches. 139 



The following arc the results of my analyses conducted by 

 the first described method : 



li0 grains allbrd, of Nitre. Charcoal. Sulphur. Water. 



Waltham Abbey . 74.5 14.4 10.0 1.1 



Hall, Dartford . 76.2 14.0 9.0 0.5 loss 0.3 



Pigou and Wilks . 77.4 13.5 8.5 . 0.6 



Curtis and Harvey 76.7 12.5 9.0 1.1 loss 0.7 



Battle Gunpowder. 77.0 13.5 8.0 0.8 loss 0.7 



It is probable, for reasons already assigned, that the pro- 

 portions mixed by the manufacturers may differ slightly from 

 the above. 



The English sporting gunpowders have long been an object 

 of desire and emulation in France. Their great superiority 

 for fowling-pieces, over the product of the French national 

 manufactories, is indisputable. Unwilling to ascribe this 

 superiority to any genuine cause, M. Vergnaud, Captain of 

 French Artillery, in a little work on fulminating powders, 

 lately published, asserts positively, that the English manufactu- 

 rers of 6 poudre de chasse' are guilty of the 6 charlatanisme' 

 of mixing fulminating mercury with it. To determine what 

 truth was in this allegation^ with regard at least to the above 

 five celebrated gunpowders, I made the following experiments : 



One grain of fulminating mercury, in crystalline particles, was 

 mixed in water with 200 grains of the Waltham Abbey gun- 

 powder, and the mixture was digested over a lamp with a very 

 little muriatic acid. The filtered liquid gave manifest indica- 

 tions of the corrosive sublimate, into which fulminating mercury 

 is instantly convertible by muriatic acid ; for copper was^uick- 

 silvered by it ; potash caused a white cloud in it, that became 

 yellow, and sulphuretted hydrogen gas separated a dirty 

 yellow-white precipitate of bisulphuret of mercury. When the 

 Waltham Abbey powder was treated alone with dilute muriatic 

 acid, no effect whatever was produced on the filtered liquid by 

 the sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 



Two hundred grains of each of the above sporting gun- 

 powders were treated precisely in the same way, but no trace 

 of mercury was obtained by the severest tests. Since, by this 

 process, there is no doubt, but one 10,000th part of fulmi- 

 nating mercury could be detected, we may conclude that 



