MODERN GUNPOWDER AND CORDITE. 
277 
a personal error, which is enough in each process to make a serious 
difference in the portions of the batch or lot made by those, working at 
the same time. The consequence of this would be that, if unadjusted, 
the lot of: 10,000 lbs., as a whole, would prove most irregular in its 
characteristics and unreliable in its shooting. To overcome this a con* 
stant systematic method of intermixing the various batches from each 
process is adopted; and this (which is termed blending) being carried 
out on scientific principles, gives a uniformity to each unit of: 10,000lbs. 
which could not otherwise be obtained. We are thus provided with 
reliable and uniform batches or “ lots ” of the propellant under dis¬ 
cussion. 
Let us now examine the practical results which the development of 
modem powders has rendered possible. The table of conditions which 
must be fulfilled before these powders are accepted, sufficiently indicates 
what a very reliable propellant we have in modern gunpowder. 
TABIaE C. 
Yon see here velocities ranging to above 1300 miles an hour, and the 
difference admissible between the maximum and minimum velocities of 
of the rounds fired is only about 40 feet a second, or little more than 
the speed of a quick runner; while the mean deviation from the mean 
is generally 10 feet or less, which is under seven miles in a velocity of 
over 1300 miles per hour. Again, as to pressures in the bore of the 
gun, it can be seen how restricted and low they are. If we examine 
Table C. it can be seen how very regular the powders must be in 
their ballistics before they are admitted into the service, and if they do 
not fulfil those conditions the powders are rejected. 
I further submit some results of the lecturers firing with pebble 
powder at Waltham Abbey. It was only an average sample of service 
powder made in 1886 and kept in a waterside magazine and used as our 
“ standard/” for comparison with current manufacture. Here are the re¬ 
sults of firing carried out during one month. On the second day of the 
month we fired the first round for the standard, and it gave 1690 feet in 
the 12-pounder breech-loader. Then we fired six experimental powders, 
testing the ordinary manufacture, and the last round fired with the 
same standard as the first, gave 1690 feet with 12 tons pressure. On 
the 10tli of the same month, the first round gave 1690 feet; then we 
fired four experimental powders, or rather current manufacture powders, 
in between, and the last round with the same standard gave 1695 feet, 
that is to say 5 feet difference, and the pressure was 12*4 tons. On 
the 22nd of the month, the last round gave 1694 feet. I submit, that 
all of us who desire good results with our field guns might very well 
rest satisfied if we could always get that kind of shooting. But the 
first round on the last day^s firing was rejected, because the velocity was 
rather high. It was 1716 feet, that is to say, 26 feet higher velocity 
than ought to have been obtained. The reason was this : that we fired 
a friction tube which exploded but did not ignite the charge. It struck 
down on the seam of the cartridge, broke up some of the pebbles into 
smaller grains. The new friction tube fired the charge, and the slightly 
increased velocity, 1716, was the result. You see, therefore, how 
