2 . REPORT—18638. 
In addition to these principal sources of information, your Committee would 
mention the services rendered by two of their own number. Prof. Frank- 
land was able to corroborate by his own experiments most of the statements 
made in the earlier communications of Mr. Abel. Mr. Whitworth has made 
experiments on the application of gun-cotton in mines, and has sent over to 
Austria rifles and ammunition, to be experimented with by Baron yon Lenk, 
with a view of obtaining results, which he has promised to communicate to 
the Committee. 
The following documents form part of this Report, and contain the infor- 
mation received. 
I. Report by Mr. Abel, received February 1863, on the system of manu- 
facture of gun-cotton, as carried on in the Imperial Austrian Establishment. 
II. Report by Mr. Abel, dated February 20th, 1863, 01 the composition, 
and some properties, of specimens of gun-cotton prepared at the Austrian 
Government Works. 
III. Memorandum by Mr. Abel, with reference to experiments in progress 
bearing upon the manufacture of gun-cotton. Received August 27th, 1863. 
IY. General von Lenk’s replies to the questions put to him at the Mectings 
of June 22 and July 14. 
VY. Extracts from a report on Baron Lenk’s gun-cotton by Profs, Redten- 
bacher, Schrétter, and Schneider. Dated June 1863. 
On the data afforded by these documents, and other information com- 
municated personally by Baron Lenk, your Committee have founded their 
present Report. It must therefore be regarded in the light of a preliminary 
inquiry. Should the Committee be reappointed, they will be happy to un- 
dertake some experiments with the view of clearing up those points which 
are still more or less obscure. 
These communications are broken into paragraphs, which are numbered 
for convenience of reference ; those of Mr, Abel are indicated by the letter 
A, those of Baron Lenk are distinguished by the letter L, whilst the extracts 
from the Austrian chemists are marked C. 
The following is a summary of the more important matters referred to in 
this evidence, with the main conclusions which your Committee haye drawn 
from them. The subject may naturally be divided into two parts, the che- 
mical and the mechanical, 
1. Chemical Considerations. 
Under this head are included the manufacture of the gun-cotton itself, and 
the answers to such inquiries as those which refer to its liability, or non- 
liability, to deterioration by keeping, the possibility of its spontaneous decom- 
position, and the nature and effects of the products into which it is resolved 
on explosion. 
As to the chemical nature of the material itself, Baron Lenk’s gun-cotton 
differs from the gun-cotton generally made, in its complete conyersion into a 
uniform chemical compound. It is well known to chemists that, when cotton 
is treated with mixtures of strong nitric and sulphuric acids, compounds may 
be obtained varying considerably in composition, though they all contain the 
elements of the nitric acid, and are all explosive. The most complete com- 
bination, or product of substitution, is that described by Mr. Hadow as 
C,,H,, (9NO,)0,,,which is identical with that termed by the Austrian chemists 
Trinitrocellulose, C,, H, (3NO,)0,,. (C. 2.) This is of no use whatever for 
making collodion, but it is Baron Lenk’s gun-cotton, and he secures its pro- 
duction by several precautions. Of these the most important are— 
