264 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 1908. 



from nitrated wood, the Schultze powder, was introduced. Later on, 

 in 1882, Eeid made grains of soluble gun cotton, and hardened them 

 by means of ether alcohol, calling the product " E. C. powder," In 

 the third lecture reference will be made to the important smokeless 

 powder of Friedrich Volkmann made in 1870. 



Such was the state of the art in 188G, when simultaneously Eugene 

 Turpin, of Paris, suggested the use of compressed or molten picric 

 acid as a charge for shells, and Vieille carried out his famous experi- 

 ments, resulting in the manufacture of the Poudre B (so named after 

 General Boulanger). At the same time it was recognized that most 

 explosions in coal mines were due to the ignition of fire-damp by the 

 firing of shots, and t'hat it was possible to make so-called " safety 

 explosives," which would considerably reduce this danger. 



Hereafter investigations and inventions came in almost too rapid 

 succession. Unfreezable dynamites, dinitroglycerin explosives, j^icric 

 acid compounds and trinitrotoluene explosives, fulminates from aro- 

 matic nitro-compounds, phlegmatized fulminate, detonating fuses, 

 and many other varieties were invented. Nitrocellulose, than which 

 there is hardly a more complex substance, was investigated by Cross 

 and Bevan, Hiiusermann, Lunge, de Mosenthal, Vignon, Will, and 

 others; the stability of nitro-compounds, the properties of nitroglyc- 

 erin, and many other substances investigated by an army of w^orkers. 

 Li fact, quite as imj^ortant results have been obtained since 1886 as in 

 the whole of the previous years. This is due, in the first instance, to 

 the enormous amount of scientific research and experiment devoted by 

 manufacturers to the study of such questions, partly because they were 

 forced to do so by considerations of national defense, the advent of 

 the rock drill, and by competition, and partly because those who 

 lacked the training for such research could be persuaded by the results 

 achieved to appreciate the work of others. Whilst until a generation 

 ago the so-called " powder maker " was a craftsman, who carefully 

 guarded little tours-de-main as valuable trade secrets, and even the 

 inventors of high explosives had to advance in a most empirical way, 

 it is recognized nowadays that only the best scientific knowledge can 

 effect improvements or keep in line with modern developments of the 

 industry. 



"WTiilst for warlike purposes the use of black powder, and even that 

 of the later brown powder, has become a negligible quantity, blasting 

 powder is still sold to such an extent that in the mines and quarries 

 of this country alone nearly 7,000 tons of it, or more than half the 

 total weight of all explosives, were used in 1907.'^ This of course 

 represents only part of the total quantity manufactured in this coun- 

 try, since 3,597 tons of gunpowder of all kinds of British and Irish 



« Report of His Majesty's inspectors of explosives for 1907. 



