Popular Science Monthly 



413 



From the portrait by S. J. \Vi: 



extent, but the weight of the cotton is 

 considerably increased. 



The oxygen which the cotton al)sorbs 

 from the nitric acid is sufficient to con- 

 sume all of the cotton without atmo- 

 spheric air, so that 

 when guncotton is 

 put in a confined 

 space and set on 

 fire it explodes 

 with great vio- 

 1 e n c e, producing 

 what are called 

 carbon dioxide and 

 carbon monoxide, 

 with free nitrogen 

 and steam. 



When the cotton 

 is immersed in the 

 nitric acid the acid 

 takes water out of 

 the cotton, which 

 dilutes the acid. 

 But the cotton gets 

 the best of the 

 bargain, because 

 the weight of oxy- 

 gen and nitrogen 

 which the cotton 

 receives is in ex- 

 cess of the weight 

 given up by the 

 cotton. 



In order to keep 

 the nitric acid bath 

 strong enough to 

 act on the cotton, 

 and to minimize 

 the acid, it is nec- 

 essary to add sul- 

 phuric acid to ab- 

 sorb the water, anrl 

 it takes about 

 three parts sul- 

 phuric acid to one 

 part of nitric acid 

 to make a proper 

 mixture for this 

 purpose. The sul- 

 phuric acid, how- 

 ever, has no eft'ect 

 whatsoever u p o n 

 the cotton. It merely acts to absorb the 

 water liberated from the cotton. 



There are several ways in which the 

 cotton is treated with the acid mixture. 

 The oldest and simplest was merely 



If you loant to know Jiow to write poetry 

 or blast a subway, lay out a garden or design 

 a battleship, ask Hudson Maxim. It is no 

 off-hand slap dash opinion that he will give, 

 but a ivell reasoned statement. For Maxim 

 believes that everything could be reduced to a 

 science, whether it is writing sonnets to your 

 lady's eyebrow or defending the country 

 against foreign invasion. 



But ^laxim is above all an authority on 

 explosives. That is why we asked him to 

 write this article for the Popular Science 

 Monthly. He invented the process of mak- 

 ing the multi-perforated smokeless powder 

 used by the United States. His Maximite, 

 adopted by the United States Government, 

 was the first high explosive which could be 

 sent through armor plate and burst inside 

 of a ship. That achievement in itself was 

 enough to make any man famous. But 

 then he is also the inventor of Stabilite, a 

 powder which we have every reason to regard 

 as important because it can be made quickly 

 in an emergency. A torpedo invention of 

 his, intetided to do -away with compressed 

 air, has also been bought by the Government. 

 Mr. Maxim is a member of the Naval Con- 

 sul I i)ig Board. 



to immerse the cotton in the acid, and 

 when it was thoroughly nitrated to place 

 it in a centrifugal machine and wring 

 out the acid and throw it into an excess 

 of water to wash out the remainder. 



The way that is 

 employed principal- 

 ly by the United 

 States Navy is to 

 do the nitrating in 

 a centrifugal ma- 

 chine and when 

 the nitrating is 

 complete to set the 

 centrifugal ma- 

 chine in motion, 

 which extracts the 

 acid from the ni- 

 trocellulose. There- 

 upon the nitrocellu- 

 lose is qui(:kly and 

 thoroughly washed. 

 After the wash- 

 ing process is com- 

 pleted there is a 

 quantity of acid 

 remaining, and 

 also there are con- 

 tained in the nitro- 

 cellulose certain 

 unstable co m- 

 poimds. These are 

 removed by thor- 

 oughly boiling the 

 nitrocellulose in a 

 large excess of 

 water. 



After this is done 

 the nitrocellulose is 

 pulped in an ordi- 

 nary pulping ma- 

 chine, like that 

 used in making pa- 

 per pulp. When 

 this is thoroughly 

 done the finely 

 pulped nitrocellu- 

 1 o s e is gathered 

 and pressed into 

 cylinders. It still 

 contains a consid- 

 erable percentage 

 of water, which must be removed in or- 

 der to dissolve or gelatinate it as a step 

 in converting it into smokeless powder. 



This is done by forcing alcohol under 

 pressure through the mass of pulped 



