76 
CAPTAIN NOBLE AND AIR. E. A. ABEL ON FIRED GUNPOWDER. 
A comparison of the analytical data furnished by our examination of the products of 
explosion of gunpowder with those obtained by Bunsen and Schischkoff and other 
recent investigators of this subject, points to the following principal differences in the 
results arrived at : — 
As regards the gaseous products : the proportion of carbonic oxide is considerably 
lower in Bunsen and Schischkoff’s analysis and in one of Karolyi’s than in the results 
obtained by us ; this might, in the case of Bunsen and Schishkoff’s results, be ascribed 
to the fact that the proportion which the saltpetre bears to the carbon in the English 
powder is lower than in the powder used by them, and that the proportion of sulphur 
is also lower. The Austrian cannon-powder employed by Karolyi, which is not widely 
different from the English cannon (R L. G.) powder, as regards the proportion of salt- 
petre and carbon, though containing a higher proportion of sulphur, furnished amounts 
of carbonic anhydride and carbonic oxide more nearly approaching those obtained with 
the English powder at a low pressure. But the other (small-arms) powder used by him 
furnished almost as low an amount of carbonic oxide as obtained by Bunsen and Schisch- 
koff, although the proportion of saltpetre to the carbon in this powder was about the 
same as in the other used by him. This result may be ascribable to the smaller propor- 
tion of sulphur existing in the former. The Wurtemburg powder used by Linck, which 
was made apparently with a very highly burned charcoal, but contained a similar propor- 
tion of saltpetre to the English powder and a high proportion of sulphur, also furnished 
a comparatively very small quantity of carbonic oxide. The proportions of this gas and 
of carbonic anhydride which it yielded were very similar to those obtained by Bunsen 
and Schischkoff with a gunpowder of widely different composition, though the method 
of experiment pursued in the two instances was the same. Although the proportion of 
hydrogen contained in the powder with which Linck experimented was very low, the 
amount of sulphuretted hydrogen which it furnished was remarkably high ; and in this 
respect again the analysis differs greatly from that of the products similarly obtained by 
Bunsen and Schischkoff. The proportions of water existing in the gunpowders used 
by these several experimenters is not stated, but it must probably have been very con- 
siderable in Linck’s powder. 
The solid products of explosion obtained by Bunsen and Schischkoff, Linck, and 
Karolyi differ remarkably from those furnished by our experiments. The potassium 
sulphate obtained by them was in Linck’s analysis about double, and in those of 
the other chemists more than double the highest amount we found*. The potassium 
carbonate furnished in the German experiments was about half that produced in ours ; 
and the proportion of potassium sulphide found in the greater number of powder- 
residues which we examined was very greatly in excess of the results obtained by the 
German experimenters. Linck found a large proportion of potassium hyposulphite in 
the solid products obtained by him, while the other chemists found comparatively 
* Excepting in the case of a Spanish powder, which differed widely in composition from the other experi- 
mented with by ns. — February 1875. 
