292 Count Rumford’s Experiments , &c. 
possible estimation, and suppose it to be only 2000 times rarer 
than water. As 1 cubic inch of water weighs 253.175 grains, 
the water contained in 1 cubic inch of steam at the tempera- 
ture of 212 0 will be 2 part of 253.175 grains, or 0.12659 of 
a grain. 
But we have seen that 1 cubic inch of gunpowder contains 
10.927 grains of water of crystallization, and 4.873 grains in 
a state of moisture. Consequently the quantity of water of 
crystallization in gunpowder is 86 times greater, and the quan- 
tity which exists in it in a state of moisture is 38 times greater, 
than that which would be required to form a quantity of steam 
sufficient to fill completely the space occupied by the powder. 
Hence we may venture to conclude, that the quantity of 
water actually existing in gunpowder is much more than suf- 
ficient to generate all the steam that would be necessary to 
account for the force displayed in the combustion of gunpow- 
der (supposing that force to depend solely on the action of 
steam), even though no water should be generated in the com- 
bustion of the gunpowder. It is even very probable that there 
is more of it than is wanted, and that the force of gunpowder 
would be still greater, could the quantity of water it contains 
be diminished. 
From this computation it would appear, that the difficulty is 
not to account for the force actually exerted by fired gunpow- 
der, but to explain the reason why it does not exert a much 
greater force. But I shall leave these investigations to those 
who have more leisure than I now have to prosecute them. 
