280 
MODERN GUNPOWDER AND CORDITE. 
remember that many years ago smokeless powder was considered to be 
a possibility within reach, when the character of gun-cotton was first 
recognised, and it was thought that this substance might be utilised by 
being kept under control or “ tamed ” by some retarding agent. To 
the unscientific but practical man this seemed a matter not difficult to 
accomplish. On the one hand, we have a violent explosive of good gas 
producing powers and almost unlimited energy; on the other, an al¬ 
most boundless range of dilutants, retarding agents, or “ tamers,” 
which, in greater or less quantities, should at any rate bring the 
violence of the explosion of gun-cotton to the same level as that of 
gunpowder. Here then, at first, was the problem to solve : To use 
with gun-.cotton such a retarding agent as will “ tame ” the explosive, 
make it safe to handle, store and use, and at the same time leave it 
with sufficient energy for use in modern guns and rifles with certainty 
and regularity of propulsion. This problem, simple as it appears, 
baffled, for decades after gun-cotton was known, the energies and 
knowledge of the most scientific artillerists and chemists; and it is 
only within the last few years that any real approach to success has 
been made, and this success has been chiefly due to the use in the 
right direction of one of the properties which gun-cotton exhibits, 
namely its solubility in acetone. 1 2 The solubility of gun-cotton in 
acetone has been known for a considerable time; but how to utilise 
this property for artillery purposes has only recently been discovered, 
and is still the subject of careful investigation. Again, in January 
1888, Messrs. Nobel & Co. registered a patent of the discovery that 
nitro-cellulose could be mixed with nitro-glycerine and that the two so 
combined, with or without the addition of a retarding agent, form a 
substance which can be relied upon for ballistic purposes.|§This, with 
other discoveries made about the same time, may be considered as 
practically the starting point for the most valuable of the smokeless 
powders, and those most largely used in the services, both in England 
and on the continent of Europe. 
We shall now consider the composition and characteristics of the 
bases of smokeless powders which have been proposed or adopted. 
First on the list is gun-cottou. When we refer to the text-books we 
find that it is stated to be tri-nitro-cellulose, with the chemical compo¬ 
sition and formula gun-cotton = C 6 H 7 0 2 3 (NO g ) . 3 I therefore propose 
to adopt this nomenclature which has been accepted up to within the 
last couple of years. The table now before us gives what may, for 
practical purposes, be considered the basis of the principal smokeless 
powders. Modifications of:— 
1 Acetone, or *’* dimethyl-ketone,” CH 3 CO CH 3 , or “ pyro-acetic spirit,” is obtained among the 
products of distillation of wood, and may be prepared by distilling the acetate of lead calcium or 
barium. 
The crude distillate is shaken with a saturated solution of hydrosodium sulphate, which combines 
with acetone to form a crystalline compound (CH 3 ) 2 CO. HN 0 S0 3 . This is freed from the 
mother liquor and distilled with sodium carbonate, when acetone distils oyer mixed with water, 
which is removed by fuzed calcium chloride. 
Acetone is a colorless fragrant liquid, Sp. gr. 0*81, and boiling at 56*3 C. = 133”3 Fahr. 
It is inflammable, burning with a luminous flame. It mixes with water, alcohol and ether.— 
Bloxani’s Chemistry. 
2 Some persons now hold the opinion that insoluable and soluable nitro-cellulose are the same 
substance under different “ allotropic ” conditions. 
