1871.] The Recent Gun-Cotton Explosion. 501 



of foul play. If the catastrophe can be explained in any 

 other way, why is it at all necessary to bring a charge of so 

 grave a nature even against " persons unknown;" and that 

 other explanations are possible, and probable, any one who 

 is cognisant with the manufacture of gun-cotton must 

 admit. 



All agree, we repeat, in saying that there was free acid at 

 any rate in some samples of the cotton, and, moreover, we 

 have it on record as a positive fact that gun-cotton in a state 

 of decomposition will explode spontaneously when exposed 

 for some time to a high summer temperature, a circum- 

 stance which has been scientifically demonstrated beyond 

 cavil. Can anything, then, be more conclusive ? We think 

 not ; and now there remains to be explained the difficult 

 matter — how the acid got into the cotton and thus set up 

 incipient decomposition in the first instance. 



Putting malice altogether on one side, the presence of 

 acid in the cotton may be due to two causes ; either the 

 acid was never perfectly removed in the poaching process, 

 or in drying the discs became overheated and nitrous 

 acid liberated in this manner. Although we do not by 

 any means incline favourably to the latter explanation, still 

 the account given of the manner in which the cotton 

 was dried shows that the process was carried out in a 

 very loose and careless manner, and that instances were 

 not rare of the ignition of the cotton on the frame by over- 

 heating. From the drying-house the gun-cotton was at 

 once sent into the magazines without further testing — a 

 grave oversight we cannot but think — the material being 

 subjected to examination only when in the wet stage of 

 manufacture. 



It was during the actual manufacture of the material, the 

 evidence seems more conclusively to point, that the mischief 

 originated. The testimony of the workpeople proves beyond 

 doubt that the manipulations were of late conducted in an 

 unusual hasty manner, and that vigilant care and attention, 

 so essential in a manufacture of this kind, was by no means 

 exercised. Instead of dipping only 75 lbs. of cotton per 

 day, which would seem for some time past to have been the 

 regulation quantity, double that amount was expected to be 

 treated by the labourers in the dipping-house, and as a 

 matter of consequence acceleration in the conversion 

 process signified also the shortening of the washing opera- 

 tion. If properly conducted, it is difficult to see how any 

 trace of acid could possibly remain in the cotton, for the 

 precautions provided for its elimination were as perfect as 



