332 Recent Changes in British Artillery Materiel. [July, 



every stage perfectly uninflammable, and the committee are 

 therefore satisfied that no danger can possibly result from 

 its manufacture (with the exception of drying) in any locality, 

 whether in or near a town. 



The operation of drying, as followed at Stowmarket, 

 seems to be open to some objections, but the committee 

 apprehend that no difficulty will be experienced in a safe 

 and simple method being devised, which may be easily 

 applicable to any locality, and feel no hesitation in record- 

 ing their opinion that there is no reason why the War 

 Department should relinquish the manufacture of com- 

 pressed gun-cotton. 



Mr. Abel, chemist to the War Department, describes the 

 results of some experiments he has made with certain 

 modifications of gun-cotton by incorporating the pulp with 

 an oxidising agent. The results appear to point to great 

 improvements that may be effected in manufacture, attended 

 with considerable increase of efficiency, and may be sum- 

 marised as follows : — 



i. There is no difficulty in incorporating with gun-cotton 

 pulp, nitrate of potash, nitrate of soda, or chlorate of pot- 

 ash, in such proportions as will get the full amount of work 

 out of the carbon in the cotton-wool ; and in afterwards 

 pressing the mixed substances into masses, as easily as 

 ordinary compressed gun-cotton. 



2. Discs made with any of these mixtures are hard and 

 compact, and less liable to split than discs of pure gun- 

 cotton. 



3. They can be coated with a waterproofing composition, 

 and can then be used for blasting in wet holes. 



4. They are less ignitable by flame than pure gun-cotton 

 discs, and when ignited burn more slowly. 



5. When exploded by detonation, the products of com- 

 bustion furnish little or no carbonic oxide, the presence of 

 which renders the. use of ordinary compressed gun-cotton 

 objectionable in military mines. 



6. Gun-cotton, mixed as described, may be kept wet like 

 ordinary gun-cotton ; and in the dry state the mixed mate- 

 rial seems to resist the action of continued exposure to high 

 temperature for a far longer period. It would, therefore, be 

 more stable, and the objections to storing dry gun-cotton in 

 any climate might be removed. 



7. The cost, weight for weight, of the mixed gun-cotton 

 is much less than the ordinary material ; and the production 

 can be increased without any additional plant. 



Special Committee, 8/4/72, consider that the above 



