[ 245 ] 



XLIII. On the Property ascribed to Quicklime ofincreasin^^ 

 the Force of Gunpuivder. Bij M. LemaistrEj Inspector- 

 General of Gunpowder and Saltpetre*. 



J. HERE was published, about eighteen mouths ago, in the 

 first volume of the BibUotlieque Physico-Economique, a note 

 announcing that Dr. Baini, a physician of Fojano in Tus- 

 cany, had found means to increase the strength of gun- 

 powder one third, by adding three gros of pulverized quick- 

 lime to each pound of powder. It was asserted that the 

 superiority of this gunpowder was attested by the Tuscan 

 hunters. 



This assertion has been again brought forward in the 

 same journal f, and in a manner still more decisive. An 

 anonymous subscriber, in a letter to the editor, enters into 

 some details calculated to excite the attention of those em- 

 ploved in the manufactory of gunpowder to this subject. 



The first notice of this circumstance had engaged my at- 

 tention a year before ; but in trials carefully made with 

 Regnier's spring proof, the best then known, I did not 

 obtain a satisfactory result : I even observed aa inferiority 

 ii* the. charges mixed with quicklime in the proportion 

 above indicated. 



On account' of certain circumstances I \^.is obliged to 

 defer any further experiments at that time, till the letter 

 before mentioned induced me to resume the subject, and 

 give my experiments all the extent possible, which I could 

 easily do at Lafere, the place of my residence. As we have 

 here a school of artillery, I engaged captain Charbonel, 

 commandant of the sixth regiment of light artillery, in gar-^ 

 rison here, to take a share m these trials along with me. 

 Of eight pounds of very dry gunpowdu-, from the same 

 barrel, four pounds were exposed for six days on the floor 

 of a magazine in the polygon where we made our trials. 

 The half of the remaining four pounds was mixed, as ex- 

 actly as possible, with about a forty-third part of its weidit;}: 

 of very fresh quicklime, speedily pulverized and sifted, in 

 order to preserve it from the action of the air, always a httlc 

 damp. 



♦ From the Bii/'oibfqrie Pbvji;o-Fccinomif/ue, January 1805. 

 + No. I. Vcndciniaire, an 13. p. 41. 



J Tlii« proportion is that of three gros per pounJ of puwdcr, as before 

 N^cntiohcd. 



O 3 Th« 



