14 Sir Frederick Abel [Jan. 31, 



not uniformly well adapted to the requirements which it should fulfil 

 in naval service. 



Attention was fiirst seriously directed to the subject of smokeless 

 powder by the reports received about four years ago of remarkable 

 results stated to have been obtained in France with such a powder for 

 use with the magazine rifle (the Lebel) which was being adapted to mili- 

 tary service. These Reports were speedily followed by others, descrip- 

 tive of marvellous velocities obtained with small charges of this powder, 

 or some modifications of it, from guns of very great length. As in 

 the case of melinite, the fabulously destructive effects of which were 

 much vaunted at about the same time, the secret of the precise nature 

 of the smokeless powder was so well preserved by the French au- 

 thorities, that surmises could only be made on the subject even by 

 those most conversant with these matters. It is now well known, 

 however, that more than one smokeless explosive has succeeded the 

 original powder, the perfection of which was reported to be beyond 

 dispute, and that the material now adopted for use in the Lebel rifle 

 bears, at any rate, great similarity to j^reparations which have been 

 made the subject of j)atents in this country, and which are still experi- 

 mental powders in other countries. 



So far as smokelessness is concerned, no material can surpass gun- 

 cotton pure and simple ; but, even if its rate of combustion in a fire- 

 arm could be controlled with certainty and uniformity, although 

 only used in very small charges, such as are required for military 

 rifles, its application as a safe and reliable propulsive agent for mili- 

 tary and naval use is attended by so many difficulties, that the non- 

 success of the numerous attempts, made in the first twenty-five years 

 of its existence, to apply it in this direction, is not surprising. 



Soon after its discovery by Schonbein and Bottger in 1816, en- 

 deavours were made to apply gun-cotton wool, rammed into cases, 

 as a charge for small arms, but with disastrous results. Subsequently 

 von Lenk, who made the first practical approach to the regulation 

 of the explosive power of gun-cotton, j)roduced small arm cartridges 

 by superposing layers of gun-cotton threads, these being closely 

 plaited round a core of wood. Von Lenk's system of regulating the 

 rapidity of burning of gun-cotton, so as to suit it either for gradual 

 or violent action, consists, in fact, in converting coarse or fine, loosely 

 or lightly twisted, threads or rovings of finely carded cotton into the 

 most explosive form of gun-cotton, and of arranging these threads 

 or yarns in different ways so as to modify the mechanical condition 

 i. e. the compactness and extent and distribution of enclosed air-spaces, 

 of the mass of gun-cotton composed of them. Thus, small arm car- 

 tridges were composed, as already stated, of compact layers of tightly 

 plaited, fine gun-cotton thread ; cannon cartridges were made up of 

 coarse, loose gun-cotton yarn wound very compactly upon a core ; 

 charges for shells consisted of very loose cylindrical hollow plaits 

 (like lamp wicks) along which fire flashed almost instantaneously ; 

 and mining charges were made in the form of a very tightly twisted 



