Mr. E. Howard on a new fulminatng Mercury. 209 



did not appear to me to be the immediate effect of the explosion. 

 I think the screw of the breech, being suddenly enlarged, acted 

 as a wedge upon the barrel. The ball missed the block of wood, 

 and struck against a wall, which had already been the receptacle 

 of so many bullets, that we could not satisfy ourselves about 

 the impression made by this last. 



SECTION VI. 



As it was pretty plain that no gun could confine a quantity 

 of the mercurial powder sufficient to project a bullet, with a 

 greater force than an ordinaiy charge of gunpowder, I deter- 

 mined to try its comparative strength in another way. 



I procured two blocks of wood, very nearly of the same size 

 and strength, and bored them with the same instrument to the 

 same depth. The one was charged with half an ounce of the best 

 Dartford gunpowder, and the other with half an ounce of the 

 mercurial powder; both were alike buried in sand, and fired by 

 a train communicating with the powders by a small touch-hole. 

 The block containing the gunpowder was simply split into three 

 pieces : that charged with the mercurial powder was burst in 

 every direction, and the parts immediately contiguous to the 

 powder were absolutely pounded, yet the whole hung together, 

 whereas the block split by the gunpowder had its parts fairly 

 separated. The sand surrounding the gunpowder was undoubt- 

 edly most disturbed : in short, the mercurial powder appeared 

 to have acted with the greatest energy, but only within certain 

 limits. 



mdccc E e 



