THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864. 



56 THE BICE-PAPER OF FORMOSA. 



elicit the powers of gun-cotton. On the other hand, in its elementary- 

 state as the open cotton yarn, it is playful, slow, gentle, and obedient ; 

 there is scarcely any mechanical drudgery you can require of it that it 

 is not as ready and fit to do as steam, or gas, or water, or other elemen- 

 tary power. 



In conclusion, I may be asked to say as a mechanic what I think 

 can be the nature and source of this amazing power of gun-cotton. In 

 reply let me ask, Who shall say what takes place in that pregnant 

 instant of time when a spark of fire enters the charge, and one-hundredth 

 part of a second of time suffices to set millions of material atoms loose 

 from fast ties of former affinity, and leaves them free every one to elect 

 his mate, and uniting in a new bond of affinity, to come out of that 

 chamber a series of new-born substances ? Who shall tell me all that 

 happens then ? I will not dare to describe the phenomena of that pregnant 

 instant. But I will say this, that it is an instant of intense heat — one of its 

 new-born children is a large volume of steam and water. When that in- 

 tense heat and that red-hot steam were united in the chamber of that 

 gun and that mine, two powers were met whose union no matter yet 

 contrived has been strong enough to compress and confine. When I say 

 that a gun-cotton gun is a steam gun, and when I say that at that 

 instant of intense heat, the atoms of water and the atoms of fire are in 

 contact atom to atom, it is hard to believe that it should not give rise 

 to an explosion infinitely stronger than any case of the generation of 

 steam by filtering the heat leisurely through the metal skins of any high- 

 pressure boiler. 



THE EICE-PAPER OF FORMOSA. 



BY ROBEBT SWINHOE, H.M. CONSUL AT FOBMOSA. 



The plant that produces the so-called rice-paper is the Arabia papyri- 

 fera of botanists, a low shrub with large leaves, in form not unlike 

 those of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis). 



This plant has as yet only been procured from the northern end of 

 Formosa, where it grows wild in great abundance on the hills. It is of 

 very^quick growth, and the trunk and branches, which are lopped for 

 use, are not unlike those of an old alder in appearance. The cellular 

 tissue or pith attains its full size the first year. The trunks and 

 branches are mostly procured from the aborigines of the inner moun- 

 tains in barter for Chinese produce. They are rarely straight throughout 

 their length, and are usually cut into pieces of about nine inches long, 

 and with a straight stick inserted at one end and hammered on the 

 ground the pith is forced out with a jump at the other end. The 

 pith is then inserted into straight hollow bamboos, where it swell* and 



