COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS OP GUNPOWDER. 173 



is sold in shops under the name of flowers of sulphur ; but the roll 

 sulphur being much cheaper than the flowers of sulphur, and being 

 also of a great degree of purity, it is the only sort which is used in 

 the manufacturing of gunpowder. With relation to the charcoal, 

 it has been generally believed that the coal from soft and light 

 woods was better adapted to the making of gunpowder, than that 

 from the hard and heavy ones : thus Evelyn says of the hazel, that 

 ** it makes one of the best coals used for gunpowder, being very fine 

 and ligtit, till they found alder to be more fit*." And in another 

 place he thinks that lime-tree coal is still better than that from 

 alder f. An eminent French chemist has shewn, from actual ex- 

 periment, that this opinion in favour of coal from light woods is ill 

 founded; he affirms, that powder made from lime-tree coal, or even, 

 from the coal of the pith of alder-tree, is in no respect preferable to 

 that made from the coal of the hardest woods, such as guaiacum 

 and oak J. '1 his remark, if it l;<> confirmed by future experience, 

 may be of no small use to the makers of gunpowder; as it is not 

 always an easy matter for ihem to procure a sufficient quantity of 

 the coal of soft wood. 



The mixture of the materials of which gunpowder is made, 

 should be as intimate and as uniform a possible ; for, in whatever 

 manner the explosion may be. accounted for, it is certain that the 

 three ingredients are necessary to produce it. Saltpetre and sul- 

 phur mixed together give no explosion ; sulphur and charcoal 

 give no explosion; and though saltpetre and charcoal, when in. 

 timately mixed, do yive an explosion, yet it is, probably, of 

 far less force than what is produced from a mixture of the three 

 ingredients. I have said probably, because this point does not 

 seem to be quite settled at present, as may appear from the 

 following opinions, of two eminent chemists, each of whom ap- 

 peals to experience. ' Un melange de six onces de nitre et d'unt 

 once charbon produit une poudre qui a moitic mains de force que 

 toutes cellos dans lesquelles on fait entrer du soufre : cette sub- 

 stance est done absolument essentielle a la composition d< la poudre. 

 Dans le temps que je travailloi* sur cette matiere, quelques 

 particuliers proposerent de faire de la poudre sans soufre: ils 

 promettoient qu'elle seroit plus forte. La poudre dans laqiu-lla 

 on fait entrer une petite quantite d< soufre, augmente de force 



* EvHyn'i Silva, by Dr. Hunter, p. 223. f Id. p. 940. 



J Chvm- par M. Rcaurat, vol. I. p. 45 j. 



