and Explosion of Gim-Cotton. 

 Gun-cotton. Products of combustion*. 



CjoHgO^oN^ 12CO = C,2 Oi2 



8 H0= Hg Og 



2N = No 



Cl2 Hg O20 Ng = C12 Hg O20 Ng 



To ascertain whether carbonic oxide was produced, and if 

 the cotton would explode without air, the following experiment 

 was tried, the object being to explode the cotton either in 

 vacuo, or in some indifferent gas which could afterwards 

 easily be removed. I selected carbonic acid as being easily 

 obtained and readily removed by a caustic alkali, and also be- 

 cause the air was more completely excluded than in the partial 

 vacuum of an air-pump. 



The gas was generated in a Woolfe's bottle, and dried by 

 passing through a tube filled with chloride of calcium ; it was 

 then conducted into a rather wide tube in which the cotton 

 was placed (about the tenth of a grain for each explosion) ; to 

 this a small bent tube was attached, the end of which was 

 under the water of the pneumatic trough. The carbonic acid 

 was allowed to escape until a small quantity collected in a 

 test-tube was entirely absorbed by caustic soda; the cotton 

 was then exploded by placing a spirit-lamp under the part of 

 the tube containing it, at the same time the gas given out at the 

 small tube was collected in an inverted jar : this was repeated 

 several times until a sufficient quantity of gas was obtained ; 

 the carbonic acid was then absorbed by caustic soda. 



The residual gas was inflammable, and when mixed with 

 oxygen and exploded by an electric shock was partially ab- 

 sorbed by caustic potash. 



Red vapours were not formed when the gas was mixed with 

 oxygen, showing that nitric oxide had not been formed. 



After the explosion not the slightest residue was left in the 

 tube. 



This experiment proves that gun-cotton will explode with- 

 out the jiresence of oxygen, and also under the same circum- 

 stances that carbonic oxide is formed, but no nitric oxide. 



Manchester, Nov. 28, 1846. 



Since the above paper was I'ead, I have estimated the nitro- 



* Messrs. Porrett and Tcsclieniacher have proved, in a paper read to the 

 Chemical Society, that cyanogen is a product of the explosion of gun- 

 cotton. As tliis is the case, the gases actually |)roduced will not be exactly 

 as described in the above diagram. It is possible that the gases would be 

 produced in the projjortion indicated above, if the gun-cotton exploded at 

 a tciii|)eratnie lower than that requisite to cause the combination of the 

 nitrogen with the carbon. — Ed. 



B2 



