EXPLOSl VENESS OF NITRE. H 



of water, being virtually hydrates of carbon. Oils, resins, or bitumens, consist ot 

 carbon and hydrogen, with but little oxygen. Of course either, when heated with 

 nitre, can supply water to the base of this salt, with, if not without, assistance from 

 its oxygen, which constitutes nearly half of the matter in nitre. Such substances 

 may, therefore, under favorable circumstances, perform the part performed by 

 sulphur in gunpowder, which I conceive to be that of seizing the potassium and 

 hberating the acid, so as to enable its oxygen to react freely with the carbon and 

 the resulting sulphide of potassium. Considerations analogous to those advanced 

 respecting the agency of the elements of water in exploding with nitrates, will 

 apply with respect to those of carbonic acid ; since carbonated alkalies, no less 

 than the hydrated, being indecomposable per se by heat, carbon as well as hydro- 

 gen must, by uniting with one portion of the oxygen of the nitric acid and taking 

 hold of the base, expel all the nitrogen with the rest of the oxygen. 



15. Having submitted the preceding facts and considerations, my explanation 

 of the stupendous explosion which forms the topic of this communication is as 

 follows : 



Of the enormous quantity of nitre which the store held, more than 56,000 

 pounds were on the first floor, about 180,000 pounds on the second floor, and 

 about 100,000 on the third floor. The weight of combustible merchandise was 

 about 700,000 pounds. As it was alleged by some of the witnesses examined 

 that the iron window shutters of an upper story became red hot by the conflagra- 

 tion of an adjoining house, it is probable that fire was communicated to some of 

 the gunny bags holding the nitre, or some other combustibles, which, as stated in 

 evidence, were piled against the shutters. As soon, however, as a single bag 

 became ignited, the nitre with which the inner bag must have been imbued, would 

 give the greatest deflagrating intensity to the consequent combustion ; while the 

 interstices between the bags, like those between grains of gunpowder, would 

 enable the flame to pervade the whole heap of bags. As nitre fuses at a low red 

 heat, very soon a great quantity, in a state of liquefaction, must have run down 

 upon the wooden floor, which would immediately burst into an intense state of 

 reaction with the oxygen of the salt. To this combustion the merchandise adjoin- 

 ing would add fuel, causing a still more extensive liquefaction of the nitre. The 

 deflagrating mass thus created, on burning its way through the floor, or falling 

 through the scuttles, which were all open agreeably to the evidence, must have 

 received an enormous reinforcement from the subjacent nitre or combustible 

 merchandise. On the giving way of each floor in succession, the conflagration 

 must have received a reinforcement of deflagrating fuel, so as to have grown 

 rapidly with its growth, and strengthened with its strength. Under these circum- 

 stances, the whole of the nitre becoming liquefied, must have found its way to the 

 cellar. Meanwhile, the merchandise and the charcoal of the wood-work must 

 have been conglomerated by the fusibility of the sugar, shellac, and bitumen, 

 aided by the molasses, and formed thus an antagonistic mass of more than half a 

 million of pounds in weight, deflagrating intensely with the nitre. But whenever, 

 by these means, a portion of the deflagrating congeries attained the fulminating 

 temperature, a detonation must have ensued, causing a temporary lifting of the 



