116 ANDREAS KURTZ 



distinction, and that his labour had won for 

 him the award of the "Legion of Honour." 



War had made great demands on the 

 services of science. Lavoisier had been 

 appointed by Turgot to superintend the 

 manufacture of gunpowder ; and under both 

 Republic and Empire Gay-Lussac had 

 laboured on the same explosive ; Berthollet 

 had to direct the preparation of saltpetre and 

 the casting of iron and steel. The subject 

 which Gay-Lussac had been compelled to 

 investigate naturally attracted the attention 

 of his companion Andreas Kurtz, and when 

 in 1815 he left France, it was with an 

 invention of his own in the manufacture of 

 gunpowder that he sought to begin his new 

 career. 



He crossed to England on the I5th August, 

 1815, and thence set sail to America, accom- 

 panied by a General Rubel. They arrived 

 at New York on the 17th December, and 

 there in conjunction with a Dr. Bollman 

 sought to exploit Kurtz's invention. The 

 venture was not a happy one, and although 

 he became an American citizen, probably to 

 comply with legal technicalities connected 

 with his patent, he remained a very short 

 time on the shores of the new world. After 



