iS73-J Recent Changes in British Artillery Materiel. 335 



committee are of opinion that it may be safely moved under 

 the regulations which may govern the transport of gun- 

 powder. 



6. The evidence obtained by the committee tends to show 

 that pure gun-cotton is a stable material, but experience on 

 this point is limited. They think it, therefore, preferable at 

 present to follow the more prudent course of excluding it 

 from magazines containing gunpowder; although they con- 

 sider that gun-cotton may be stored, when convenient to do 

 so, in magazines built for gunpowder. 



It should, however, be understood that when circum- 

 stances absolutely require it, such as when a second safe 

 store is not available, dry gun-cotton may be temporarily 

 placed in a magazine with gunpowder. 



7. The recommendations of the committee in their pre- 

 liminary report, with respect to wet gun-cotton, require no 

 amendment. 



Since the above conclusions were arrived at b}^ the special 

 committee, the discovery has been made that compressed 

 gun-cotton can be exploded when wet by means of deto- 

 nation ; this discovery has been fully confirmed by the 

 results of some experiments lately carried out at Weston- 

 super-Mare: and it is not improbable that moist gun- 

 cotton will be utilised for bursting charges of shells in 

 future. 



On the 4th April some further trials were made near 

 Eastbourne to determine the liability or otherwise of stores 

 of wet gun-cotton to explosion from simple inflammation. 

 Accordingly, two magazines were prepared at Pevensey, in 

 each of which one ton of Abel's compressed gun-cotton 

 discs was placed, containing 30 per cent of moisture. In 

 one the gun-cotton discs were packed in 80 regulation 

 boxes with their lids screwed down, and in the second the 

 discs of gun-cotton were removed from their boxes and 

 placed naked in a large wooden tank. 



On the application of fire to the magazines, smoke and 

 flame issued in considerable volumes and in successive 

 bursts as the boxes caught fire, and after two hours and a 

 half of intense conflagration the fire died away without any 

 explosion, the whole of the gun-cotton having been totally 

 consumed, and the interiors of the magazines glowed like 

 furnaces. The result of this crucial experiment was most 

 satisfactory. 



The enormous importance of these experiments, as esta- 

 blishing the immunity from explosion of moist gun-cotton 

 in compressed discs in certain quantities cannot be overrated, 



