AND SCHONBEIN 87 



which is being made through muschelkalk in our 

 neighbourhood, and in the opinion of the work- 

 men it was as effective as three times the quantity of 

 powder. 



No changes need be made in the guns, cannon, etc., 

 in order to employ guncotton, and it can be fired by 

 means of the ordinary percussion-caps. Another 

 useful property which it possesses is that it practically 

 does not foul or heat the guns at all, so that several 

 hundred charges can be fired from the same gun 

 without its having to be cleaned. 



With the greatest respect, I have the honour to be, 

 My dear Baron, 



Yours most truly, 



C. F. SCHONBEIN. 

 BALE, 20ta June 1846. 



This letter was laid before the Academy on the 9th of 

 September (the cause of the delay is explained in Ber- 

 zelius' answer), together with a communication of the 16th 

 of August from the second discoverer of guncotton, Prof. 

 Bb'ttger l of Frankfort on Main, and another from Wohler 

 of Gb'ttingen, and was printed in the Ofversigt, Arg. 3 

 (1846) p. 209. 



1 Kudolph Bottger, born at Aschersleben in 1806, died at 

 Frankfort on Main in 1881. In August 1846, when professor 

 at the Physical Society at Frankfort, he independently dis- 

 covered guncotton, and joined with Schonbein in the practical 

 utilization of the discovery. 



