33 MATCHES F0.lt ARTILLERY. 



Their advan- flame, which quickly sets fire to the priming. In this 

 ages ' respect they are far preferable to match, since they give 



light to the gunner, their fire is more vivid, and they are 

 more easily guided; but these advantages are counter- 

 Defects, balanced by dangers and defects. The saltpetre in these 

 port-fires is never entirely burnt, but -part runs out of the 

 Particularly tube. When the materials are not well powdered, they 

 dangerous at are SUD jeet to spit, or throw out pieces of burning salt- 

 petre to the distance of three or four feet, which may oc- 

 casion serious accidents, particularly on board ships. I 

 myself had my hair set on fire, and a hole burnt through 

 both my coats, by a spark of this kind. In ships they are 

 obliged to be kept in the middle of a tub of w^ter on this 

 account. 

 Wood impreg- These were the only means employed to fire pieces of 



nated with artillery, when one of my correspondents at Madrid ac, 



nitrate of cop- J ' J x 



per, proposed quainted me, that Messrs. Borda and Proust had proposed 



Proust* 1 ^ to the Spanish government, to substitute instead of tilt 

 cannon match, wooden rods impregnated with nitrate of 

 copper. He added, that these rods burnt like touchwood, 

 forming a pointed red coal ; and that the trials with them 

 succeeded perfectly, though they had not been adopted. 

 I informed his excellency, the minister at war, of this new 

 method; and he requested me to make the necessary ex- 

 periments for ascertaining its utility, directing Mr. Les- 

 pagnol, a captain in the artillery, to assist me in the 

 inquiry. 

 All wood not My first idea was, that ail kinds of wood could not be 

 iorthe : purpose. equally fit for the purpose; and that the difference of their 

 porosity would occasion a difference in their combustibility. 

 Nitrate of pot- Before I tried the metallic nitrats, I took common salt- 

 ' pctre, and boiled several kinds of wood in a strong solu- 

 tion of it, which they imbibed in different proportions. 

 This attempt did not succed: the only wood that burnt 

 quickly was the common cane, used for dusting clothes, 

 or rotang; but its coal had no substance, the least 

 Differentwoodsblow breaking it off, and extinguishing it. I then got 

 nitrates^f top- a joiner to make me some square rods, half a yard long, 

 per and lead, of oak, elm, ash, elder, birch, poplar, lime, and fir. 

 I took two parcels of these, and boijed one in a solution 



