3CD Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



marvellous how it has been tamed b\ a mere alteration in its 

 physical state. It is, as you know, used for all kinds of blasting- 

 even now, and at the same time can be fired from the veriest i)op- 

 gun, as well as a 12" breech-loader. All the same, there is a vast 

 difference between propulsion and disruption, and of modern explo- 

 sives few can be persuaded to act in this dual capacity. 1 have 

 already said that in the Sixties the Austrian Government thought 

 they had tamed Gun Cotton, but they found out their mistake, and 

 ■even nowadays, with all our knowledge and all our experience, Gun 

 Cotton is still intractable. It is true that we have been successful, 

 and ver}' successful, in .some directions, but that is brought about by 

 first dissolving Gun Cotton in acetone, or some similar solvent, 

 Tcneading it into dough very much like Blasting Gelatine, and press- 

 ing or rolling this dough into any desired shape while it is still plastic 

 through the presence of the solvent. When this is evaporated off, 

 it is left as hard as a stone, with a surface as compact, and this is 

 really the secret of the taming — the hardening of the surface and 

 the more gradual combustion. Fulminate and numerous other 

 ■explosives have never been tamed, and never will be tamed ; that is, 

 they are disruptive agents, pure and simple. But even in the case 

 of fulminate, if it is compressed sufficiently it loses its effectiveness 

 as fulminate, and it is no use even as an ordinary explosive. All 

 this, however, is a digression, and really apart from our subject; but 

 I have thought it to be not out of place to point out this final triumph 

 ■of nitro-glycerine. I have called Cordite a well-behaved explosive, 

 and the unhappy war which has just ended, and ended with both 

 sides employing the same ammunition, was the most crucial test 

 ■of the merits of any powder. Cordite came out of the ordeal well, 

 and, in spite of its tremendous latent power, it gives a lower breech 

 power than any other propellant so far devised. 



I am afraid that this, the first and the principal division of mv 

 paper, has been treated in rather a sketchy manner, but, in any case, 

 little time need be spent on the concluding portion, i.e., the influence 

 ■of nitro-glycerine explosives on industrial development. This can, 

 of course, be considered from two points of view, viz., the industrial 

 undertaking of explosive manufacture and the greater, but more in- 

 direct, " influence " exerted on industry by this increased use of 

 explosives. As an example of the importance and growth of the 

 industry itself, I may mention that at the factory with which I am 

 •connected we employed about 750 whites and 3,000 natives prior to 

 the war in order to supply the requirements of the Transvaal alone. 

 For getting raw materials, machinery, etc., up from the coast, we 

 paid the various railway .systems over ^£200,000 in one year. There 

 are, of course, no other Rands in the world that we know of as yet, 

 but still the amount of explosives consumed all over the world is 

 ■enormous. In Great Britain alone I estimate that 20,000 tons Df 

 High Explosives must be produced annually, but a great part of this 

 is. naturally, exported. One may say with perfect certainty that 

 indu.strial progress would have been several decades behind what it 

 is at present without nitro-glycerine explosives. This is a tall 



