SUBSTITUTES FOB GUNPOWDEE. 
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mature as gun-cotton, was accomplished by chemists soon after Schonbein’s discovery of 
gun-cotton was made known. Finely-divided w'ood, or sawdust, may, by treatment 
with suitable agents, be to a very considerable extent purified of substances foreign to 
cellulose; and, if then submitted to careful digestion in a mixture of the strongest 
nitric and sulphuric acids, and properly purified, it furnishes a highly explosive material 
similar to the most explosive gun-cotton, and possessed apparently of considerable sta¬ 
bility. Captain Schultze, a Prussian artillery officer, who was entrusted by his govern¬ 
ment a few years ago with the investigation of gun-cotton, appears to have come to the 
conclusion that finely-divided wood offered greater prospect of conversion into a control¬ 
lable explosive agent than cotton wool. The ultimate result of his investigations has 
been the production of a “ gun-sawdust,” the explosive properties of which depend in 
great measure on its impregnation with a considerable proportion of an oxidizing agent, 
either saltpetre or a mixture of that salt and nitrate of barium. The wood, having been 
reduced to a tolerably uniform state of division, is submitted by Captain Schultze to 
purifying processes for the separation of resinous and other substances from the lignin, 
and the product is converted by digestion in a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acids into 
a very feebly explosive material, which leaves a considerable carbonaceous residue when 
burnt. This product after purification is impregnated wfith a sufficient proportion of 
nitrates to give it rapidly explosive power, the oxidation of the carbon being now almost 
complete. The objects which appear to be aimed at by Captain Schultze in following 
this method of manufacturing a wood-gunpowder, are, the production of a more gra¬ 
dually explosive material than is obtained by the most perfect action of nitric acid upon 
wood-fibre, and the possibility of preserving the material in a slightly explosive and 
therefore comparatively harmless form, until it is required for use, when it may be soon 
rendered powerfully explosive by impregnation with the nitrates. It is asserted that 
this powder is considerably more powerful than gunpowder as a mining agent; and 
that, by its employment in mines, the operators are enabled to return to work sooner 
than when gunpowder is used, because there is little or no smoke produced by its ex¬ 
plosion. The latter is an undoubted advantage which Schultze’s powder shares with 
gun-cotton. Advantages are also claimed for this material when employed in firearms, 
and it is possible that when applied to sporting purposes, it may compete successfully 
with gunpowder in this direction also ; but its behaviour as an explosive, and the pecu¬ 
liarities of its structure, afford little promise of its advantageous employment in arms for 
military and naval purposes. 
Important progress has been made in the history and the application of gun-cotton 
since its study was resumed in this country about three years ago. Very considerable 
quantities of the material have been manufactured at the works of Messrs. Prentice, at * 
Stowmarket, and at the Government Gunpowder Works at Waltham xVbbey ; its appli¬ 
cation to mining and artillery purposes, and to small arms, has been, and is still the 
subject of systematic experiment, conducted by the Government Committee on Gun¬ 
cotton ; its employment as a blasting agent is steadily increasing in several important 
English .mining districts; and considerable, though not uniform, success has already 
attended the employment of gun-cotton cartridges for sporting purposes. 
The system of manufacture of gun-cotton, as perfected by Baron Von Lenk, has un¬ 
dergone but trifling modifications in its employment in this country. It has been made 
the subject of careful investigations by Mr. Abel, and the results furnished by many 
experimental manufacturing operations, and an examination of the products, have 
shown that the process of converting cotton into the most explosive form of pyroxylin 
or gun-cotton, and of purifying the material, have been so greatly perfected by Von 
Lenk as to render a strict adherence to his simple and precise instructions alone neces¬ 
sary to ensure the preparation of very uniform products, which exhibit in their compo¬ 
sition a very much closer approximation to purity than those obtained in the earlier 
days of the history of gun-cotton. 
Although the conclusions arrived at by the many chemists who investigated the 
composition of gun-cotton, soon after Schonbein’s discovery, varied very considerably, 
the constitution has been very generally regarded as definitively established by the re¬ 
searches of Hadow,, published in 1854. According to that chemist, the most explosive 
gun-cotton has the composition expressed by the formula C, 5 H-N 30 j]^ (which was first 
assigned- to the substance by W. Crum, in 1847), and may be regarded as cellulose, in 
which three atoms of hydrogen are replaced by three molecules of peroxide of nitrogen. 
