102 MINUSES OF PilOCEEDtNGS OF 
rollers or through a guillotine machine. In order to convey the cakes from 
the first to the second cutters, they press each cake between two sheets of 
canvas. These sheets of canvas hold the strips together after passing the first 
cutters. The whole cake is in this state turned by hand through a quarter 
circle and passed through the second pair. This plan is rather more trouble¬ 
some and expensive than that at Waltham Abbey, but it is equally efficacious. 
The Kames Gunpowder Company also at first experienced considerable 
difficulty in producing good pebble, as the following proofs will show:— 
Dates of proof, 19th and 20th March, 1872. 
Lot. 
Samples. 
Experiment. 
M. 
V. 
71 . 
1 and 2 
846-7 
1355 
1372 
72 . 
848-9 
1367 
1369 
73 . 
„ 
850-1 
1376 
1360 
76 . 
II 
844-5 
1408 
1394 
77 . 
II 
853-4 
1403 
1389 
78 . 
II 
855.-6 
1383 
1395 
79 . 
II 
857-8 
1361 
1373 
80 . 
n 
859-60 
1365 
1378 
81 . 
II 
861-2 
1373 
4372 
The difficulty at Kames at this period was to get sufficient velocity, and it 
was not till after a visit had been paid to Waltham Abbey that they succeeded 
in meeting the specification. In their opinion the powder they afterwards 
made, and which readily passed the specification, was inferior to that of which 
the proof has been given; by which is to be understood that it was not so 
thoroughly incorporated. ^Further on will be given some experiments made 
at Waltham Abbey which confirm this opinion. 
Messrs. Curtis and Harvey supplied two sorts of powder—one, as already 
stated, broken up by the ordinary granulating machine, the other consisting 
of pressed pellets, afterwards broken in two. The latter powder was found to 
give very good results when fired, as shown in the following proofs:— 
Lot. 
Experiment. 
M. V. 
Pressures. 
Date. 
N o. 
A. 
B. 
C. 
1404 ... 
1470 ... 
30. 11. 71 
15. 3. 72 i 
(-424 
< 425 
(426 
C 823 
\ 824 
1450 
1440 
1438 
1422 
1424 
15*4 
16-1 
13-3 
18-1 
17-2 
16- 4 
15-7 
14-3 
17- 3 
17-6 
15- 7 
14-0 
14-1 
17-2 
16- 7 
provements made. The uniformity of results is due to their having adopted a mechanical system of 
mixing:— 
Lot. 
Date of 
experiment. 
Corrected 
M. Y. 
Corrected pressures. 
A. 
1 B. 
C. 
A 
16.10. 74 
145L 
15-5 
119 
13*6 
B 
„ 
1465 
164 
15*5 
15*3 
C 
n 
1444 
15-9 
14*7 
14*9 
D 
n 
1444 
15-2 
14*9 
14*5 
E 
n 
1454 
14-5 
13*8 
13*2 
Gr 
H 
1447 
15-2 
14*9 
14*0 
I 
n 
1448 
15*6 
15*3 
14*6 
K 
1448 
15-0 
15*2 
13*9 
M 
it 
1476 
17-8 
17*8 
17*3 
