CAPTAIN NOBLE AND ME. F. A. ABEL ON FIEED GUNPOWDER. 
57 
Table I. — Showing the transformation experienced by Gunpowder after Bunsen 
and Schischkoff. 
| ^Residue 0-6806 grin. 
f Nitre . . . , 
. .. •7899'’) 
1 Sulphur . 
. . . -0984 
; 
fC -0769 
Charcoal ■ 
H -0041 
l 
[ O -0307 J 
Gases 0-3138 grm. 
0-9944 
f K 2 C0 3 
k 2 s 2 o 3 .... 
K 2 so 4 
k 2 s 
' KC NS 
kno 3 
(NH 4 ) 2 CO .. 
s 
1C 
grms. 
, -1264 
, -0327 
. -4227 
. -0213 
, -0030 
, -0372 
, -0286 
•0014 
, -0073 
cub. centims. 
rsH 2 
, -0018- 
1-16 
0 
•0014= 
1-00 
CO 
•0094- 
7-49 
co 2 
•2012= 
101-71 
H 
•0002= 
2-34 
N 
•0998= 
79-40 
193-10 
In Table III. a comparative statement is given of the foregoing results with those of 
other recent experimenters and with those furnished by our investigations. 
Bunsen and Schischkoff determined the number of units of heat generated by 
combustion, by exploding a small charge of powder in a tube immersed in water. They 
found that the combustion of a gramme of powder gave rise to 620 gramme-units of 
heat ; and hence they calculated that the temperature of explosion, in a close chamber 
impervious to heat, was 3340° C (5980° F.). 
From the above data the pressure in a close vessel is deducible ; and they computed 
that the maximum pressure which the gas can attain, which it may approximate to but 
can never reach, is about 4374 atmospheres, or 29 tons on the square inch. 
Bunsen and Schischkoff further computed the total theoretical work which a kilo- 
gramme of gunpowder is capable of producing on a projectile at 67,400 kilogrammetres. 
In the course of our paper we shall have frequent occasion to refer to these very 
important researches. 
In 1858 Dr. J. Linck* repeated, with Wurtemburg war-powder, Bunsen and 
Schischkoff’s analysis of the products of combustion, which were obtained by the same 
method. The composition of the powder used is given in Table II. 
Linck’s results, which we have placed in the same Table as those of Bunsen and 
Schischkoff, differed in several points from the results of the latter chemists, but chiefly 
in the much smaller quantity of potassium sulphate found. Linck considered that 1 
gramme of the powder used generated 218*3 cub. centims. of gas. 
In 1863 M. von KAEOLYif examined the products of combustion of Austrian musket- 
and ordnance-powder. 
* Annalen der Chemie, vol. cix. p. 53. 
f Poggendorff’s ‘ Annalen,’ April 1863. Philosophical Magazine, ser. 4, vol. xxvi. p. 266. 
MDCCCLXXV. I 
