286 
MODERN GUNPOWDER AND CORDITE. 
pebble, 1880 feet + or —■ 80, while with 5 lbs. 7 ozs. of smokeless 
powder it gives 2145 feet-f- or —25. I think those results speak for 
themselves. Then again, in the 6-inch gun 29 lbs. 12 ozs. of black 
powder giving 1890 feet muzzle velocity with 15 tons pressure. The 
results in the table are based upon actual shooting, and the conditions 
of acceptance are framed upon practical experience, and these conditions 
must be complied with by all powders before they are allowed to pass 
into the service. It may here be interesting to quote some of the 
actual shooting within the last few months of our own experience, and 
for these, the latest results, I have again to thank our friends at 
Waltham Abbey and also the Director General, who has kindly per¬ 
mitted me to have them. With lot 8, size 5 1 (that is field gun size) in 
the 12-pr., 1 lb. 0^ oz. charge, from the actual results fired in July last 
we obtained 1732 feet as the muzzle velocity with 13*84 pressure. The 
results which were forwarded to me last month were 1726 feet velocity 
with the same lot, and 13’45 pressure. The temperature of the air 
when the firing took place in December being quite sufficient to account 
for the slightly lower results as compared with those obtained in July. 
It is easy to understand the favourable impression that results of this 
nature make upon those who watch them carefully. Then there are 
other difficulties which had to be contended with, and one was 
technically termed “ sweating,” which frequently causes strained re¬ 
lations between employers and employed (or unemployed ?) Our 
(i sweating,” however, had nothing to do with workmen, but it was a 
curious propensity which some batches of cordite exhibited in exuding 
the nitro-glycerine on the surface. There are various causes which 
produce this exudation, one of which is water in the nitro-glycerine 
before incorporation; there are also several others which we need not 
enter into here, but I believe that the difficulty has been completely 
overcome, by arrangements during manufacture. 
Climatic Trials. 
Secondly, as to climatic trials or keeping qualities. Climatic trials 
have been carried out all over the world, and they have so far proved 
eminently satisfactory. The arctic cold of the winter in Canada with 
the temperature below zero, and the tropical heat of India have as yet 
failed to shake the stability of the composition, or abnormally injure 
its shooting properties. The Director General kindly wrote to me the 
other day and said that cordite returned from Canada has been 
analysed, and has been quite unchanged. I have myself had under 
my own observation 100 lbs. in an open case exposed, in an open porch, 
to all the vicissitudes of a Waltham winter—snow and rain—and also 
to an English summer—rain without the snow—and the results again 
showed that there was hardly any perceptible difference in shooting 
due to this severe test. If our old friend pebble or prismatic powder 
M.V. 
Mean. 
Pressure. 
1734T) 
i3*3q 
1731 ! 
14*2 | 
1733 f 
' 1732 
i4-i y 
1733J 
13-8 | 
1728 
13*8J 
