1 871.] The Recent Gun-Cotton Explosion. 495 



organic impurities very strictly studied, so that the result 

 was frequently a product of an unequal and unstable 

 character. The violence with which this material exploded 

 was quite ungovernable, and its lack of uniformity formed 

 an element of risk and danger not easily exaggerated. 

 Lenk's cotton, on the other hand, was a far less treacherous 

 and dangerous article to deal with ; the cotton was con- 

 verted into pyroxylin in the form of skeins or woven 

 twist, and these were treated with strong acids for so long 

 a period, that a more highly explosive, and at the same 

 time more stable and perfectly converted, gun-cotton was 

 the result. Elimination of the acids was secured by 

 immersion of the cotton in running water for the space 

 of three or four weeks, and finally a treatment with silicate 

 of soda or potash followed, which although possibly without 

 effect in retarding the combustion of the cotton — the avowed 

 purpose of its introduction — was doubtless of some import- 

 ance in checking any incipient generation of acid that might 

 be set up. This yarn gun-cotton burnt with much less 

 violence, and came to be employed with some prospect of 

 success in ordnance and small arms, when twisted and 

 woven into cartridges of different forms ; but much more 

 experience of the subject was nevertheless required before it 

 could be safely adopted in this way as a substitute for gun- 

 powder. The military authorities in Austria were in the 

 meantime indisposed to carry on a costly and lengthened 

 investigation, such as a thorough study of gun-cotton 

 promised to be ; and as it was evident, even in its improved 

 form, that the cotton was unsuitable for general army pur- 

 poses, an abandonment of the material necessarily followed. 

 But the progress made was too valuable to be lost sight of. 

 Scientific men in this country were fully alive to the pos- 

 sible value of this improved gun-cotton as a military 

 and industrial agent, and attention was ere long called 

 to the subject at a meeting of the British Association in 

 1862, and further investigation of the matter definitely 

 decided upon. Seeing that scientific opinion in England 

 was friendly disposed towards the new explosive, the holders 

 of the patents in Austria at once cast about for manufac- 

 turers over here willing to undertake the preparation of the 

 Lenk cotton, and thus it came to pass that presently 

 the Gun-cotton Works at Stowmarket were established for 

 the purpose of preparing the material on the Austrian 

 system. M. Revy, who held the English patent at the 

 time, was, we believe, the projector of the works, which 

 were constructed under his immediate direction, and in 



