178 COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS OF GUNPOWDER. 



the composition of gunpowder, tlian both these materials taken 

 together; hence, there is a great temptation to lessen tin- quantity 

 of the saltpetre, and to augment that of the other inurtdi 

 and the fraud is not easily detected, since gunpo\v(!-r, whirh will 

 explode readily and loudly, may be made with very different 

 quantities of saltpetre. 



Baptista Porla died in the year 1515 ; he gives three different 

 portions for making of gunpowder, according as it was required 

 to be of different strength*. I have reduced his proportions, so 

 that the reader may see the quantities of the several ingredients, 

 contained iti 100 pounds weight of each sort of powdt-r. 



It is somewhat remarkable, that in all these proportions, the 

 sulphur and charcoal are used in equal quantities. Cardan died 

 about sixty years after Baptista Porta, and in that interval, the 

 proportions of the ingredients of gunpowder seem to have under- 

 gone a great change. Cardan's proportions for great, middle, 

 sized, and small guns, are expressed in the following table*. 



For great and middle. sized guns, we see, a much greater pro- 

 portion of charcoal than of sulphur was used in Cardan's time ; 

 at present, I believe, it is in most places the reverse, or at least 

 the charcoal no where exceeds the sulphur. I have put down the 

 proportions used at present in England, France, Sweden, Poland, 

 and Italy, for the best kind of gunpowder. 



Maj. Nut. L. XII. c. 3. 



< Card. Opcr. Vol. III. p. 379. 



