A MODERN NITRO POWDER. 



47 



A MODERN NITRO POWDER. 



I recently visited Carney's Point, N. J., where 

 the wonderful plant of the Du Pont Nitro pow- 

 der is situated. Here may be found one of the 

 most extensive, thoroughly equipped modern 

 Nitro powder factories in the world. It is a study 

 in completeness and an education in the methods 

 pursued in making modern explosives. 



Du Pont, Grandpere, came to this country in 

 1802, and established the factory that has made 

 black powder for nearly a century, the product 

 of this factory being known over the entire 

 world. Wherever adventurous man has pushed 

 his way with rifle or pick and shovel, Du Pont's 

 powder has been used and its reputation during 

 all that time has been that it is simply perfection. 



The factory at Carney's Point is the outcome 

 of the discovery of the imperfections of a com- 

 pound, thought perfect for centuries in the past, 

 but which must give way to the demands of the 

 present and the future. The Nitro powder has 

 come to stay, and the reputation of Du Pont's 

 black powder, in the past, will be maintained in 

 the future by this modern compound. 



Arriving at the Point the entrance from the 

 pier is found close to the ornate building known 

 as the chemical laboratory; and it is here that the 

 product of the plant, now being tested by thou- 

 sands of sportsmen in front of the traps and in 

 the field, has been gradually worked out. These 

 nitros are not, like black powder, a merely 

 mechanical mixture of certain ingredients which 

 explode when brought into contact with fire. The 

 Nitro powder represents, in the first place, a 

 series of long, arduous and costly experiments to 

 determine a formula which, theoretically and in 

 the laboratory, will give an explosive that will fill 

 the exacting requirements of the day. This for- 

 mula determined, a reasonably large quantity 

 must be made and tested, perhaps to be found 

 wanting in some vital particular. Then the 

 whole process must be gone over, re-experi- 

 mented upon, and so on until success is assured. 

 This takes patience, perseverance, time and 

 money, besides exact chemical knowledge and 

 positive love for the work. Taking all this into 

 consideration, it is not strange that so few good 

 Nitros have been completed. 



Having secured a practical working formula, 

 with a base, say cotton waste, a vegetable sub- 

 stance which, when acted upon by nitric acid, will 

 become nitro-cellulose, the first step is made. 

 This waste is cleaned from all impurities — not 

 simply washed, but chemically purified — and this 

 means careful manipulation. Having been 

 washed, it must now be dried, and until placed 

 in the acid baths, the fabric must be kept dry; 

 receiving its due proportion of acid it must be 

 squeezed and placed in stone ware pots for a 

 time, until it shall become thoroughly nitrated. 

 It is then washed, neutralized, treated with 

 other chemicals and washed again, until it finally 

 appears a finished nitro powder, ready to be 

 canned and shipped. It would be impossible in 

 the limits of this article to do more than give a 

 faint idea of the various steps of the many going 

 to make up the completion of a batch of nitro pow- 

 der. Enough has been said to show what a 

 wonderful intricate business it is, and to give 

 some idea as to how difficult it has been to make 

 small batches that will hold up to the laboratory 



standard First, the completed nitro must have 

 a hard grain, in order to resist atmospheric 

 changes, and still be porous and sensitive to the 

 heat and flame of the primer. Second, it must 

 give the highest velocity possible, with a mini- 

 mum gas pressure, and third, it must be stable, 

 always giving the same results , independent of 

 weather or temperature, or other atmospheric 

 vicissitudes to which it may be subjected. 



Nearly every process is conducted in a sepa- 

 rate building, and the ten or a dozen necessary are 

 substantially built, steam-heated and electric 

 lighted. Everything about the factory is most 

 complete and of the best. Such machinery as 

 has not been specially invented by the Du Ponts 

 is of the latest type, and everything is in perfect 

 order. 



Having followed the waste from the bale to 

 the tin can in which the powder is packed and 

 shipped, it may not be uninteresting to see how 

 the finished powder is tested. This is done in a 

 separate building, one side of which is all glass. 

 Facing this building is another, 40 yards away. 

 This latter building is sheathed with sheet iron, 

 on the side next the testing house, and this is 

 pierced with two round holes, about four feet in 

 diameter ; inside of one of these is an ingenious 

 arrangement for holding the large paper targets 

 which show the " pattern " given with a charge 

 of powder and shot. In front of the other is a 

 machine which, by electricity, registers the ex- 

 act instant the charge of shot strikes the plate. 

 As the charge leaves the muzzle of the gun, it 

 closes a circuit and registers the instant of leav- 

 ing. Having now the time the shot left the gun 

 and the time it struck the plate, the exact dis- 

 tance being known, it is a simple matter to 

 figure out the velocity of the charge. The 

 " gas pressure " or the bursting power of the 

 powder, is found byan equally ingenious and 

 reasonably exact gauge. You want the pressure 

 of 2% drams of powder, with a certain wadding, 

 and \\ ounces of shot, from a 12 gauge gun. 

 Every gauge of shot gun is represented in this 

 testing house, by a barrel, with a hole in the 

 upper circumference, and this hole, when the 

 barrel is fitted into the guage, corresponds with 

 another in the gauge itself. A mechanism at- 

 tached fires the charge and sufficient force is 

 expended through this hole to push up a mechan- 

 ism, between the parts of which and la direct 

 line of the force, has been placed a bit of cop- 

 per, of a certain length and diameter ; the press- 

 ure exerted upon the gauge crushes the copper, 

 or rather squeezes it in its length. The loss in its 

 length is measured by an accurate, specially made 

 caliper, and from the loss is deduced the so 

 called " gas pressure." 



Every one who has done much shooting knows 

 something of this Du Pont nitro. Though so 

 recently introduced, the wonderful scores made 

 by various experts and amateurs, notably Mr. 

 Messner's in winning the American Handicap, 

 has already pushed it to the front, and the fact 

 that so much care has been and is being given to 

 its manufacture, combined with its intrinsic value 

 will keep it there. The following points are of 

 interest to the trap and field shooter ; first, lack 

 of recoil ; second, lack of smoke ; third, little or 

 no solid residuum ; fourth, such residuum as 

 there is, is alkaline and not deliquescent. This 

 lessens the chance of rusting the barrel from 



