having manufactured It when pressed by need. The 

 finished powder is absurdly simple to load. The only 

 essential thing is to see that all the cartridges have an 

 exactly similar charge of powder and the results, speak- 

 ing broadly, will be identical. 



How different is the case with smokeless powder. 

 What Spaniard in Peru could have aspired to perform 

 even the earliest processes in the manipulation of materials 

 that are made to go through a number of complicated 

 chemical changes and processes before appearing as a 

 finished powder ? 



Moreover, just as the powder maker has had to instal 

 a far more expensive plant to produce smokeless powder 

 than black, so has the case maker had to redouble the 

 strength of his case to withstand the vagaries of this new 

 propellent ; and the cap which in black powder days 

 would fire anything, however it was made, now calls for 

 a trained staff of chemists to produce from it a flame of 

 just the right size and heat and force to ignite a particular 

 powder, or combination of all three to best suit a group 

 of powders, all having the same general characteristics, 

 but differing in detail in many points. 



Now the task of loading is no longer a sinecure. The 

 loader, to do justice to his components, should have not 

 only a pradical technical knowledge of the general prin- 

 ciples of manufadure of each class of component, but a 

 detailed knowledge of the manufacturing history of every 

 batch of cases, wads and powder that passes through his 

 hands ; he must also have the necessary testing plant in 

 the shape of chronographs, pressure guns, recoil apparatus, 

 pattern plates, and penetration tests, to check the results 



12 



