EXPERIMENTS 



TO DETERMINE 



THE FORCE OF FIRED GUNPOWDER. 



NO human invention of which we have any authentic 

 records, except, perhaps, the art of printing, has 

 produced such important changes in civil society as the in- 

 vention of gunpowder. Yet, notwithstanding the uses to 

 which this wonderful agent is applied are so extensive, 

 and though its operations are as surprising as they are 

 important, it seems not to have hitherto been examined 

 with that care and perseverance which it deserves. The 

 explosion of gunpowder is certainly one of the most 

 surprising phenomena we are acquainted with, and I 

 am persuaded it would much oftener have been the sub- 

 ject of the investigations of speculative philosophers, as 

 well as of professional men, in this age of inquiry, were 

 it not for the danger attending the experiments ; but 

 the force of gunpowder is so great, and its effects so 

 sudden and so terrible, that, notwithstanding all the pre- 

 cautions possible, there is ever a considerable degree of 

 danger attending the management of it, as I have more 

 than once found to my cost. 



Several eminent philosophers and mathematicians, it 

 is true, have, from time to time, employed their atten- 

 tion upon this curious subject; and the modern im- 

 provements in chemistry have given us a considerable 

 insight into the cause and the nature of the explosion 



