480 Colonel Sir Frederic L. Nathan [Jan. 29, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, Janiiarv 29, 1909. 



Sir William Crookes, D.Sc. F.R.S., Honorary Secretary and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



CoLOXEL Sir Frederic L. Nathax, Pv.A. M.R.I. 



Lnjyrovements in Production and Application of Guncotton and 

 Nitroglycerine. 



The subject, on Avhich I have been asked to lecture to-night, is one 

 that has often been dealt with in this theatre by such great authorities 

 as the late Sir Frederick Abel and Sir Andrew Noble. I feel it a 

 great honour therefore to have been invited to deliver this discourse, 

 but I realise that it is a very difficult task I am attempting. Sir 

 Frederick Abel was one of the gi-eatest authorities on the chemistry of 

 explosives, and used to deal with them mainly from the chemical point 

 of view ; Sir Andrew Noble, on the other hand, is the greatest living 

 authority on all that concerns artillery and ballistics, and he has con- 

 sidered explosives mainly from the ballistic standpoint. I am neither 

 a chemist nor an artillerist, but occupy the much more humble position 

 of a manufacturer of explosives, and I must ask your indulgence 

 whilst I endeavour to describe the main features connected with the 

 manufacture of guncotton and nitroglycerine, and to say a few words 

 about cordite, essentially a combination of the two. 



For centuries the only explosive knoAvn to the world was that 

 mechanical mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur, called gun- 

 powder. Chemical explosives may be said to date from the discovery 

 of guncotton by Schonbein, and it is a fact worth noting on this 

 occasion, that the first sample of guncotton in this country was one 

 which accompanied a letter of Schonbein from Basle, dated the 18th 

 March 1846, and addressed to Michael Faraday at the Royal Institu- 

 tion. Schonbein referred to guncotton in this letter as follows : — 



" There is another point about which I take the liberty to ask 

 your kind advice. I am enabled to prepare in any quantity a matter 

 which, next to gunpowder, must be regarded as the most combustible 

 substance known. So inflammable is that matter that on being 

 brought in contact with the slightest spark, it will instantly be set on 

 lire, leaving hardly any trace of ashes, and if the combustion be caused 

 within closed vessels, a violent explosion takes place. That com- 

 bustible substance is, as I will confidently tell you, raw cotton, pre- 

 pared in a simple manner, which I shall describe you hereafter. I must 

 not omit to mention that water has not the least action upon my matter, 

 that is, that it may be immersed ever so long in that fluid, without 



