187i).] on Brrenf Dcfonafinr/ AijcntK. 87 



meut appeared to have been surmounted, the confidence of its most 

 indefatigable partisans and stannchest friends received a rude shock, 

 from which it needed the support of much faith and some fortitude 

 to recover. 



Meanwhile, the other substance, which now shares with it the 

 honours of important victories won over gunjoowder, continued to 

 be generally regarded as a dangerous chemical curiosity, even for 

 some time after its present position as one of the most important 

 industrial products and useful explosive agents was being gradually 

 but firmly secured for it, step by step, by the talent and untiring 

 energy of a single individual. 



Almost from the day of its discovery, the fortunes of gun-cotton 

 continued to fluctuate, and much adversity marked its career, until at 

 last its properties became well understood, and its position as a most 

 formidable explosive agent, applicable on a large scale, with ease, 

 great simplicity, and with a degree of safety far greater than that 

 as yet possessed by any other substance of this class, has now become 

 thoroughly established. Since the lecturer last discoursed on the 

 properties of gun-cotton, seven years ago, this material has attained a 

 firm footing as one of the most formidable agents of defence and 

 oifence. For all military engineering operations, and for employment 

 in submarine mines and toriDcdoes, compressed gun-cotton, stored and 

 used in the wet condition, has become the accepted explosive agent 

 in Great Britain ; within the last five years upwards of 550 tons have 

 been manufactured for this purpose, and are distributed over our 

 chief naval stations at home and abroad. Germany some years since 

 copied our system of manufacture and use of gun-cotton ; France has 

 provided itself with a large supply for the same purposes, and Austria, 

 where the acquisition of bitter experience of the uncertainty of gun- 

 cotton in the earlier stages of history, naturally gave rise to a 

 persistent scepticism regarding its present trustworthiness, appears 

 now also about to adopt wet gun-cotton for military and naval uses. 



But while the usefulness and great value of compressed gun-cotton 

 in these important directions has been established, its technical appli- 

 cation has made but slow progress as compared with that of the simple 

 nitro- glycerine preparation known as dynamite, which, in point of 

 cost of production and convenience for general blasting purposes, 

 can claim superiority over compressed gun-cotton. Already in 1867 

 a number of dynamite factories, working under Nobel's supervision, 

 existed in different countries ; in that year the total quantity manu- 

 factured amounted to 11 tons; in another year the produce had 

 risen to 78 tons ; in 1872 it had attained to 1350 tons. Two years 

 afterwards the total production of dynamite was nearly trebled, and 

 in 1878 it amounted to 6140 tons. 



There are as many as fifteen factories in different parts of the 

 world (including a very extensive one in Scotland) working under 

 the supervision of Mr. Nobel, the originator of the nitro- glycerine 



