COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS OP GUNPOWDER. 179 



Several experiments have been lately made in France, in order 

 to determine the exact proportions of the several ingredients which 

 would produce the strongest possible power; these proportions 

 when reduced, as all the rest hare been, to the quantity compos. 

 ing one hundred pounds of gunpowder, are 



Saltpetre , . . . 80 Ib. 

 Charcoal . . . . 15 

 Sulphur . . 5 



100 



From hence it would appear, that in a certain weight of saltpetre, 

 the powder would produce the greatest effect, when the weight of 

 the charcoal was to that of tke sulphur, as 3 to 1. On the other 

 hand, experiments are produced from which it is to be concluded, 

 that in a certain weight of saltpetre the best powder is made, when 

 the sulphur is to the charcoal, in the proportion of 2 to 1 . From 

 these different accounts, it seems as if the problem of determining 

 the very best possible proportion was not yet solved. 



In drying gun. powder, after it is reduced into grains, there are 

 two things to be avoided, too much and too little heat. If the heat 

 is too great, a portion of the sulphur will be driven off, and thus the 

 proportion of the ingredients being changed, the goodness of the 

 powder, so far as it depends on that proportion, will be injured. 

 In order to see what quantity of sulphur might be separated from 

 gun. powder, by a degree of heat not sufficient to explode it, I took 

 24 grains of the powder marked F F in the shops, and placing 



Tlicf an* said to be the proportions of government powder. Pemb. 

 Chem. p. SOT. 



fl Chem Dirt. & Baumfe's Chem. Vol. I. 466. 



f Mom. de. Chem. Vol. II. p. 425, where it ia said, that two specimens of 

 powder from Holland gave only 711b. of saltpetre from 100 of powder, 



Coinm. Scien. Bonon. Vol. IV. p. 133. 



