1890.] on Smokeless Explosives. 19 



known violent explosive agents, also invented by Mr. Nobel, and called 

 by him blasting gelatine, in consequence of its peculiar gelatinous 

 character. When the nitro-cotton is impregnated and allowed to 

 digest vrith nitro-glycerine, it loses its fibrous nature and becomes 

 gelatinised while assimilating the nitro-glycerine, the two substances 

 furnishing a product which has almost the character of a compound. 

 By macerating the nitro-cotton with from 7 to 10 per cent, of nitro- 

 glycerine, and maintaining the mixture warm, the whole soon becomes 

 converted into a plastic material from which it is very difficult to 

 separate a portion of either of its components. This preparation, and 

 certain modifications of it, have acquired high importance as blasting 

 agents more powerful than dynamite, and possessed of the valuable 

 property that their prolonged immersion in water does not separate 

 from them any appreciable proportion of nitro-glycerine. 



In the earlier days of the attempted application of blasting gelatine 

 to military uses, in Austria, when endeavours were there made to 

 render the material less susceptible of accidental explosion on active 

 service (as by the penetration of bullets or shell fragments into 

 transport wagons containing supplies of the explosive), this result 

 was achieved by Colonel Hess by incorporating with the components 

 a small proportion of camphor, a substance which had then, for some 

 time past, played an important part in the technical application of 

 nitro-cotton to the production of the remarkable substitutes for ivory, 

 horn, &c., known as Xylonite. By incorporating with nitro-glycerine 

 a much larger proportion of nitro-cotton than used in the production 

 of blasting gelatine, and by employing camphor as an agent for pro- 

 moting the union of the two explosives, as well as, apparently, for 

 deadening the violence, or reducing the rapidity of explosion of the 

 product, Mr. Nobel has obtained a material of almost horn-like 

 character, which can be pressed into pellets or rolled into sheets 

 while in the plastic condition, and which compares favourably with 

 the gun-cotton preparations of somewhat similar physical characters 

 just referred to, as regards ballistic properties, stability and uni- 

 formity, besides being almost absolutely smokeless. The retention 

 in its composition of some proportion of the volatile substance 

 camphor, which may gradually be reduced in amount by evaporation, 

 renders this explosive liable to undergo some modification in its 

 ballistic properties in course of time ; it is believed that this point 

 has been dealt with by Mr. Nobel, and accounts from Italy speak 

 favourably of the results of trials of his powder in small arms, while 

 Mr. Kru|)p is reported to be carrying on experiments with it in guns 

 of several calibres. 



The Government Committee on Explosives, in endeavouring to 

 remedy the above defect of Nobel's original powder, were led by their 

 researches to the preparation of other varieties of nitro-glycerine- 

 powder, which, when applied in the form of wires or rods, made up 

 into sheaves or bundles, have given, in the service small-bore rifle, 

 excellent ballistic results. The most promising of them, which 



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