218 
CAPTAIN NOBLE AND MR, F. A. ABEL ON FIRED GUNPOWDER. 
the powders used for military purposes. The composition of these two samples of 
powder, which were obtained from Messrs. Curtis and Harvey, is given in the 
following;’ tabular statement:— 
O 
Components, per cent. 
Sporting powder. 
Curtis and Harvey’s 
No. 6. 
Mining powder. 
Saltpetre. 
-o , f Sulphate . 
Potassium j cw W de . 
Sulphur. 
f Carbon 
CharcoaJ hydrogen . 
] Oxygen . . 
1 Ash . . . 
Water. 
74-40 
0-29 
Trace. 
10-37 
10-660 
2-29 \ 13 ' 78 
0-31J 
1-17 
61-66 
0-12 
0-14 
15-06 ' 
17-930 
HI >21-41 
0-59 J 
1-61 
It will be seen that the sporting powder did not differ very widely in composition 
from the several military powders of Waltham Abbey manufacture, while the mining 
powder presents very important differences from any of the other powders experi¬ 
mented with by us, as well as from those used by recent foreign experimenters, to 
which we have referred in our first memoir.* The proportion of saltpetre is about 
11'3 per cent, lower than in the military powders, while the proportions of charcoal 
and sulphur are each higher by about one-half. The percentage composition of the 
charcoal contained in these two powders is given below, and a comparison of the 
numbers with those furnished by analysis of the charcoal from the several military 
powders shows that the sporting powder charcoal is intermediate between the It. F. G. 
and F. G. charcoal, and that the mining powder charcoal resembles that contained 
in the pebble powder. Both these charcoals contained, however, a decidedly higher 
proportion of mineral constituents than the charcoal manufactured at Waltham Abbey. 
Percentage composition of the charcoals contained in the several descriptions 
of gunpowder employed. 
Pebble. 
R. L. G. 
R. F. G. 
F. G. 
Curtis and Harvey. 
Spanish. 
Sporting. 
Mining. 
Carbon .... 
85'26 
80-32 
75*72 
77-88 
77-36 
83-74 
76-29 
Hydrogen . 
2-98 
3-08 
3-70 
3-37 
3-77 
3-07 
3-31 
Oxygen .... 
10-16 
14-75 
18-84 
17-60 
16-62 
10-45 
14-87 
Ash. 
1-60 
1-85 
1-74 
1-15 
2-25 
2-74 
5"53 
The results obtained by firing these two gunpowders in 30 per cent, space are 
included in the statements given in Tables I. and II.t 
* Phil. Trans., 1875, Part I., p. 72. f See also Tables XII and XIII. 
