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not injure Schonbein. He (W. S. Ward) had prepared gun 

 cotton by soaking fine cotton in an equal mixture of sul- 

 phuric and nitric acid. The acid was then washed out of 

 the cotton with water, and it was dried ; but this should be 

 done at some distance, for at three or four feet from the fire 

 a quantity exploded in his hand, though it did not burn. He 

 thought the preparation of it must be expensive, for it re- 

 quired a liquid ounce of each acid to prepare one ounce of 

 the cotton. Four grains of the cotton sent a pistol ball 

 through an inch board and flattened it. It required eight 

 grains of gunpowder to do the same. In each case the noise 

 of explosion was about the same, though that of the cotton 

 was rather more like the crack of a whip. In mining, the 

 cotton would be very useful ; for the effect of the shot might 

 be ascertained at once, whereas it was necessary to wait three 

 quarters of an hour to allow the smoke of powder to disperse. 

 He doubted the applicability of the cotton to machinery, 

 because the explosion was so transient. It opened, however, 

 an interesting inquiry as to the effect of these acids on vege- 

 tables. He understood that sawdust might be applied in the 

 same way. He thought there would be great difficulty in 

 the use of this cotton in artillery; for percussion would cause 

 the cotton to explode, and it therefore might be exploded by 

 the friction or shock of heavy cannon balls. 



The Rev. W. Thorp then made some remarks on the 

 boring of Artesian wells, in which Mr. W. S. Ward joined, 

 observing that the system was admirable as regarded bore- 

 holes which were dry, but that when there was water in the 

 bore, as was generally the case in this district, little advan- 

 tage could be expected from the introduction of Fauvelle's 

 method, or of the Chinese or percussive system. 



