1847.] Memoranda on Explosive Cotton. \77 



Memoranda on Explosive Cotton, by W. B. O'Shaughnessy, M. D., 

 F. R. S., Co-Secretary, Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



Having been permitted to publish the results of some experiments 

 which I have recently conducted by order of Government, with the 

 object of testing the value of explosive cotton for Military purposes, I 

 trust the details I proceed to submit may not be altogether devoid of 

 interest. 



Soon after the first accounts arrived from home regarding Schoen- 

 beins discovery of the new explosive, a small portion of his preparation 

 was received in Calcutta, of which from two sources I obtained altoge- 

 ther about a grain in weight. There was at the same time received 

 from Professor Schoenbein a kind of paper, perfectly transparent and 

 colourless, the preparation of which was believed to be in some manner 

 connected with that of the explosive cotton. 



Minute as was the quantity of the cotton I received, it was still 

 sufficient to afford a clue to the nature of the preparation. A particle 

 exploded over mercury in a glass tube, disappeared without residuum 

 — and gave a transparent and colourless gas, but slightly soluble in 

 water and giving red fumes by mixture with common air, and a whitish 

 precipitate when agitated with lime water. The microscope further 

 showed that the structure of the cotton was unaltered by the preparation 

 it underwent. This was sufficient to prove that the explosive cotton 

 contained nitrogen — and rendered it probable that it might be prepar- 

 ed by the action of nitric acid on the vegetable fibre. It recalled to 

 mind too the experiments made by Peloaze in 1833, who found that paper 

 immersed for a moment in the strongest nitric acid, then thoroughly 

 washed with distilled water and dried, became exceedingly inflammable, 

 being transformed into a substance which he named Xyloidine. 



Working upon these data, I succeeded late in December, in preparing 

 an explosive cotton, and about the same time my friend Mr. Siddons, 

 by independent experiments, arrived at the same result. 



That the explosive cotton we prepared is identical with Schoenbein' s, 

 seems to be proved by the following circumstances, 1 . On microsco- 

 pic examination there is no perceptible difference of structure. 2. On 

 explosion they yield the "same gaseous mixture — and lastly, by immer- 

 sing the best kind of the Calcutta cotton, in pure sulphuric ether, it is 



2 B 



