284 
MODERN GUNPOWDER AND CORDITE. 
where nitro-glycerine takes the place of the retarding agent which was 
formerly used with gun-cotton. The first has not been so successful 
for the reasons already given, while the latter (gun-cotton with nitro¬ 
glycerine) gives most excellent ballistics but very high temperatures. 
The excessively high temperature which is produced by the use of nitro¬ 
glycerine has contributed towards the continuation of investigations on 
the Continent, as to the possibility of obtaining a gun-cotton or other 
smokeless powder ; but hitherto we have not heard of any marked 
success. 
I think that we are now in a position to discuss the manufacture of 
the smokeless powder, cordite, which promises so favourably, and 
which has been made so successfully in large quantities for over a year 
at Waltham Abbey. 
Cordite is a smokeless propellant of the combined nitro-cellulose (or 
gun-cotton) and nitro-glycerine type. Its composition was determined 
by a Committee (The Explosives Committee) of most distinguished 
chemists, with Sir Frederick Abel as president. They decided that 
the proportion of the ingredients should be gun-cotton, 37 per cent.; 
nitro-glycerine, 58 per cent.; and mineral jelly, 5 per cent. The gun¬ 
cotton is first dried (in the form of 9 ounce primers) down to about 1 
per cent, moisture. Then a portion (27f lbs.) is placed in a brass-lined 
box, and 43J lbs. nitro-glycerine are carefully poured over it. These 
ingredients are then carefully mixed by hand and taken to the incor¬ 
porating machines, and the whole is brought into a gelatinous condition 
by the addition of about 15^£ lbs. of acetone, which is poured over the 
charge in the incorporating machine, and worked up into a kind of 
dough. 3| lbs. of “ mineral jelly 331 are afterwards added, and the 
material is incorporated or mixed for seven hours. When it has been 
sufficiently incorporated and is ready, the charge is taken to the press 
house where it is squeezed in a cylinder, one end of which has a small 
hole of the required size for the cordite, which is squirted through by 
means of a plunger or piston pressing on the other end of the cylinder. 
The cylinder is filled with composition and the plunger pushes or 
squirts the soft material in the form of cord or string of the thickness 
required. The sizes are *0375 in., which is used for the rifle, up to *5 
in., which has been experimentally used with a heavy B.L. gun with 
satisfactory results. This string is wound on reels for the smaller, or 
cut into lengths for the larger natures. It is then placed in a stove 
and is dried, to get rid of the acetone at 100 degrees Fahr., from three 
to nine days, according to the thickness of the cordite. It is after¬ 
wards blended in the rifle cordite, by taking the production of ten 
presses which are on “ one strand ” reels and winding these on to one 
“ten strand” reel. Then the cordite on six “ ten strand ” reels is 
wound on to one drum, which make up a rope or cord of 60 strands, 
which in short lengths form the 30J grain charge of the magazine rifle. 
The larger natures of cordite are blended on the same principles as 
gunpowder. Cordite has proved itself to be very safe to manufacture 
1 Mineral jelly (vaselin) is the liquid which distils over from petroleum at temperatures above 
200 C. It is a hydrocarbon, richer in carbon than petroleum, and it boils about 278 C. Formula 
C16H34. 
