1890.] on Smokeless Explosives. 21 



a reduction in size of the charge-chamber, and some additions to the 

 strength, and perhaps, in some cases, of the length, of the chase. 



When, however, the smokeless powder has been adapted with 

 success in all respects to artillery, from small machine guns to guns 

 of comparatively heavy calibre, and when its ballistic advantages 

 have been fully utilised in guns of suitable design, it will remain to 

 be determined how far such a powder — undeniably of much more 

 sensitive constitution than black powder, or any of its modifications — 

 will withstand, unchanged and unharmed, the various vicissitudes of 

 climate, and the service storage-conditions in ships and on land in all 

 parts of the world, — a condition essential to its adaptability to naval 

 and military use, and especially to the service of our Empire ; and 

 whether sufficient confidence can be placed in its stability for lont^ 

 periods under these extremely varied conditions to warrant the neces- 

 sary freedom from apprehension of possible danger, emanating from 

 within the material itself, to allow of its being substituted for 

 black powder wherever its use may present advantages. 



Possible it might be, that the storage, with perfect safety, of such 

 a powder in ships, forts, or magazines might demand the adoption 

 of precautionary measures which might place some comparatively 

 narrow limits upon the extent of its practicable service applications ; 

 even then, however, an imperative need for the introduction of special 

 arrangements to secure safety and immunity from deterioration may 

 be of small importance as compared with the great advantages which 

 the provision of a thoroughly efficient smokeless powder may secure 

 to the possessor of it, especially in naval warfare. 



That the opinions respecting the importance of such advantages 

 are founded upon a sound basis, one can hardly doubt, after the views 

 expressed by several of the highest military and naval authorities, 

 although opinions as to their extent may differ very considerably even 

 among such authorities. 



The accounts furnished from time to time from official and private 

 sources of the effects observed, at some considerable distance, by 

 witnesses of practice with the smokeless powders successively adopted 

 in France, have doubtless been regarded by military authorities as 

 warranting the belief that the employment of such powders must 

 effect a great revolution in the conduct of campaigns. Not only have 

 the absence of smoke and flame been dwelt upon as important factors 

 in such a revolution, but the recorders of the achievements of smoke- 

 less powder — whose descriptions have doubtless been to some 

 extent influenced by the vivid pictures already presented to them 

 of what they should anticipate — have even been led to make such 

 explicit assertions as to the noiselessness of these powders, that hio^h 

 military authorities have actually been thereby misled to pourtray, 

 by vivid word-painting, the contrast between the battles of the future 

 and the past;— to imagine the terrific din caused by the discbarge of 

 several hundred field-guns and the roar of musketry in the ^n-eat 

 battles of the past, giving place to noise so slight that distant troops 



