AND SCHONBEIN 91 



XX 



Schbnbein to Berzelius 



DEAR SIR, 



Your kind note of November of last year has 

 just been forwarded to me from England, and so I 

 hasten to thank you most sincerely for it. I learned 

 with the greatest interest the results you obtained with 

 guncotton, especially as I also, as early as last spring, 

 made experiments not only with cotton but also 

 with a number of plants, consisting chiefly of lignin, 

 and obtained explosive substances from them. 



You will have heard that last year, here in Bale as 

 well as in England, I carried out many experiments 

 in shooting and blasting with my guncotton, and I 

 should like now to give you some details. In 

 Faversham in Kent we employed a very accurately 

 constructed mortar, which throws shells of sixty-four 

 pounds and is used for testing the powder which the 

 factories of that place supply to the British Govern- 

 ment. Two ounces of the best English powder sent 

 a shell of sixty-four pounds from this mortar on an 

 average 275 feet, whereas an ounce of my guncotton 

 sent the same shell 550 feet. In carbines of narrow 

 calibre 10 grms. of guncotton produced the same 

 effect as 41 grms. of the best gunpowder. In pistols 

 of a particular pattern guncotton exhibited a driving 

 force seven times as great as that of gunpowder. I 

 made numerous experiments in blasting in the mines 

 and slate quarries of Kent and in a tunnel in our 



