ON THE APPLICATION OF GUN-COTTON TO WARLIKE PURPOSES. 25 
cotton is certainly not more difficult or complicated, and is attended with con- 
siderably less risk of accident to the workmen and the manufacturing esta- 
blishment, than the production of gunpowder. 
IV.—Information given by Baron Lrnx on June 22 and July 14, 1863. 
1. What weight of gun-cotton and gunpowder give equal effects?—In ac- 
cordance with experience, gun-cotton produces the same effect as three times 
its weight of gunpowder, which proportion, under certain circumstances, may 
be increased to six times its weight of gunpowder ; for the effect of gun-cotton 
in proportion to gunpowder is the greater the more resistance is offered to 
the charge by the sides which enclose it, and_the less gas can escape at the 
beginning of the explosion. 
2. What bulks of each give equal effect ?—The space required for a gun- 
cotton cartridge, to produce an equal effect, is scarcely half as large as that of 
a gunpowder cartridge; and it is only made equally large or slightly larger, 
if secondary circumstances should demand it. 
3. Is the effect more constant with gun-cotton or with gunpowder.—The 
effect of small fire-arms and of artillery in general is considerably more 
uniform and constant with the use of gun-cotton than with gunpowder, 
provided the proper charge and cartridge has been taken. 
That superiority gun-cotton partly owes to the chemical process by which 
I have produced it, and partly to the uniform formation of the cartridge, 
which can only be attained by its regular texture, using it in the shape of 
cotton-yarn. 
4, Which admits of more precise aim ?—On account of the more constant 
effect of gun-cotton, and because its use prevents fouling of the gun, which 
further admits to reduce the space between shot and barrel, and on account of 
less heating of the gun, as well as by the uniform position of the cartridge, 
there must be a more precise aim of shot with gun-cotton—which, moreover, 
has been fully proved by experience. 
5. Which occasions least recoil ?—Chiefly on account of the smaller space of 
time the projectile requires to pass through the barrel of a gun to attain a 
certain initial velocity, the recoil of the gun is less than with the use of 
gunpowder. It may be stated that, by the official trials of the Commissioners 
in the year 1860, the recoil of the gun with gun-cotton was found to be 
0-68 of that with gunpowder. 
6. What is the relative effect as to fouling ?—Except an extremely small 
residuum of carbon, there is no deposit with the use of gun-cotton. The 
barrel of a gun requires no cleaning out; there is no chemical effect upon 
cast- and wrought-iron, steel, or bronze barrels by using gun-cotton car- 
tridges. 
7. Is gun-cotton liable to decay when stored ?—Gun-cotton has been stored 
like gunpowder for twelve years, usually packed in wooden boxes; and no 
trace of alteration has been discovered. My own experiments go back as 
far as 1846, and have given most favourable results in this respect. 
8. How is it affected by water or damp ?—Gun-cotton placed under water 
is unalterable. By the transformation of ordinary cotton into gun-cotton, it 
loses the greater part of its hygroscopic property, so that gun-cotton, properly 
manufactured, resists the influence of damp much better than gunpowder ; and 
moreover it cannot, like gunpowder, get permanently spoiled thereby. Gun- 
cotton, if dried in the open air, contains 2 per cent. moisture ; ordinary cotton 
about 6 per cent. Gun-cotton, placed in a room completely saturated with 
