THE PRODUCTS 
OF THE 
COMBUSTION OF GUN-COTTUN AND GUNPOWDER 
UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES ANALOGOUS TO THOSE WHICH 
OCCUR IN PRACTICE. 
BY LIEUTENANT VON KAROLYIL* 
REPRINTED FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE OF OCTOBER, 1863, WITH REMARKS BY DR. B. F. CRAIG. 
‘THE gun-cotton manufactured according to Major General Freiher yon 
Lenk’s method at Hirtenberg, near Wiener Neustadt, has, in consequence of 
special previous experiments, been used by the Genie corps for mining pur- 
poses, and notwithstanding the fact that there are still numerous difficulties in 
the way of its use for gun charges, it is also used by the Royal Imperial Ar- 
tillery for hollow projectiles. 
The first-mentioned use led the Genie committee, to which I belong, to: 
cause experiments to be made which are calculated to give greater insight into 
the chemical deportment of this substance. Among these is the attempt to 
ascertain the products of combustion of the gun-cotten produced in Hirten- 
berg; and in the course of the investigation it seemed advisable to extend the 
method I used to gunpowder. 
I.—ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCTS OF COMBUSTION OF GUN-COTTON. 
The rapid deflagration of gun-cotton, and its necessary accompaniment, the 
bursting action, prevented me from using in the analysis of the products of 
combustion the excellent method which Professor Bunsent devised for obtain- 
ing the combustion products of gunpowder for the purpose of analysis. It 
was necessary to effect the combustion zz vacuo, and for this purpose I used a 
eudiometre about a metre in length, in which, instead of two wires, as in the 
ordinary eudiometre, a single very thin platinum wire was drawn across. 'T'o 
this from 15 to 20 milligrammes of gun-cotton were aflixed, the tube filled 
with mercury, and the Torricellian vacuum produced in the usual manner. 
By means of a galvanic battery the wire could be ignited, and hence the gtn- 
cotton exploded; thereupon all eudiometrical operations were carried out in 
the tube in the usual manner after a preliminary experiment had shown that 
* Translated from Poggendorff’s Annalen, April, 1863, by Dr. Atkinson, Royal Military 
Collere, Sandhurst. 
+ Phil. Mag., vol. xv, p 489. 
