GUNPOWDER. 187 



used by the English, in their engagement with the French fleet 

 off Grenada, in July 1779 ; the French having done much 

 damage to the masts and rigging of the English, when the 

 English shot would not reach them. When this matter was 

 inquired into by the House of Commons, it appeared that the 

 powder had been injured by the dampness of the atmosphere ; 

 it had concreted into large lumps, in the middle of which the 

 saltpetre was visible to the naked eye. If the wetting of gun- 

 powder has been considerable, it is rendered wholly unfit for 

 use ; but if no other foreign substance has been mixed with it, 

 except fresh water, it may be made into good gunpowder again, 

 by being properly pounded and granulated. If the wetting has 

 been occasioned by salt-water, and that to any great degree, the 

 sea salt, upon drying the powder, will remain mixed with it, and 

 may so far vitiate its quality that it can never be used again in 

 the form of gunpowder. However, as by solution in water, and 

 subsequent crystallization, the most valuable part of the gun- 

 powder, namely, the saltpetre, may be extracted, and in its 

 original purity, even from powder that has been wetted by sea- 

 water, or otherwise spoiled, the saving damaged powder is a 

 matter of national economy, and deservedly attended to in the 

 Elaboratory at Woolwich. 



" The proportions," continues Dr. Watson, " in which the 

 ingredients of gunpowder are combined together are not the same 

 in different nations, nor in different works of the same nation, 

 even for powder destined to the same use. It is difficult to obtain 

 from the makers of gunpowder any information upon this sub- 

 ject : their backwardness arises not so much from any of them 

 fancying themselves possessed of the best possible proportion, as 

 from an affectation of mystery, common to most manufacturers, 

 and an apprehension of discovering to the world that they do 

 not use so muck saltpetre as they ought to do, or as their com- 

 petitors in trade i tally do use. Saltpetre is not only a much 



