r 
PRECIS 
AND 
TBANSLATION- 
REVUE D’ ARTILLERIE. 
NOTES ON INDUE IT E . 
BY 
F . E . B . L . 
THIS is a smokeless powder in use in the United States Navy, of which the 
inventor, Mr. Charles E. Mnnroe, gave the following account to the Chemical 
Society of Washington. 
His object was, he said, to produce a powder composed of one single substance 
chemically pure. For that purpose he began by purifying dry gun cotton by 
treating it with methylated spirit and by drying the residue of insoluble cellulose 
nitrate. The cellulose strongly azotized was then mixed with a certain quantity 
of mononitrobenzene,* which altered neither its appearance nor its explosive 
qualities. This was put into a compressor where it was agglutinated and 
transformed into a dark and translucid mass like india-rubber. This substance 
was cut up into flat strips or into grains, and compressed anew to the required 
dimensions, then again cut up into grains. The explosive in this state was 
plunged into boiling water at atmospheric pressure for the purpose of driving out 
the nitrobenzene and of hardening the cellulose nitrate. The mass then acquired 
a yellowish colour with the density and hardness of ivory. 
It was this change of chemical state that modified the substance so as to 
transform it from a violent explosive into a slow combustion powder. 
Trials made with it appear to have given very satisfactory results, notably in 
point of regularity. The conditions imposed by the United States Navy Board 
were the following:—For a velocity of 600 metres a pressure of 23 to 25 kg. 
per mm 2 (a velocity of 1970 feet and a pressure of 14^ to 16 tons per square 
inch). 
In the result a Q.F. gun of 15 cm (6 in.) with a charge of 12 kg. (26 lbs.) and 
a shell of 45 kg. (100 lbs.) obtained muzzle velocities of 752 and 748 metres 
(2467 and 2454 feet) with pressures of 2U64 and 21*59 kg. per mm 2 (13*74 
and 13*71 tons per square inch). 
Indurite keeps well. A. sample of it kept for 6 months in a magazine at high 
temperature retained its explosive property without any modification. 
* Mononitrobenzene (or benzol) is described in Cundill’s Dictionary of Explosives as consisting 
of 9 to 18 parts of nitrobenzol with 10 parts of gun cotton. 
The form c ‘benzene” is said to be displacing the form “ benzol,” In commerce they say 
benzine, the name altered by Liebig to benzol. 
6. VOL. xxv. 
