558 
DR. H. DEBUS 0N THE CHEMICAL THEORY OE GUNPOWDER. 
Therefore, potassic sulphate and the carbon of charcoal, react, under the conditions 
of the experiment, principally according to the equation 
4K 3 S0 4 + 7C=2K 3 C0 3 +2K 3 S 3 + 5C0 2 
Noble and Abel calculate their potassic sulphide as monosulphide, and in a special 
column give, as free sulphur, the sulphur not contained in the monosulphide, potassic 
sulphate and potassic hyposulphite. This so-called free sulphur was in reality 
contained in the residues partly in union with potassium as disulphide, partly with 
iron as ferrous sulphide. 
If we imagine their free sulphur all combined with their potassic monosulpliide, we 
obtain: 
In 15 experiments united to 2 atoms of potassium, from 17 to 2*44 atoms of 
sulphur. 
In seven experiments from 2*44 to 3 - 00 atoms of sulphur. 
And in three experiments from 3*0 to 37 atoms of sulphur. The mean of 
25 experiments would give us for 2 atoms of potassium 2*42 atoms of sulphur. But 
as a portion of the so-called free sulphur was in union with iron, it follows that in the 
powder residues 2 atoms of potassium were on an average combined with less than 
2'42 atoms of sulphur. These numbers, however, apply only to their corrected 
results. 
According to Berzelius and Mitscherlich the action of sulphur upon potassic 
carbonate at a white heat produces K 2 S 2 ; the reduction of potassic sulphate in presence of 
carbonate, according to my own experiments, gives K 2 S r83 ; the mean of Noble and Abel’s 
experiments for the composition of the potassic sulphide formed by the explosion of 
powder in their apparatus is less than 2*42 atoms of sulphur for every 2 atoms of 
potassium, hence we may conclude that the potassium sulphide formed during the 
second stage of the combustion of gunpowder is the disulphide, or at least contains 
the two elements in a proportion closely approaching the proportion in the disulphide. 
The following considerations confirm this conclusion. 
The mean composition of the English service powder is : 
16KN0 3 +21T8C+6’63B 
The Austrian rifle powder contains : 
16KNO 3 +20*57C+5*66S 
The products of combustion of the former are, according to Noble and Abel, 
4*98K s C 0 3 +0*90K 2 SO 4 +2*10K 2 S-f 13T3CO 2 +3*23CO + 0*84S 
Those of the Austrian rifle powder, according to Karolyi, are 
3*27K 2 CO 3 +4*52K 3 SO 4 +0 , 2K 2 S 2 + ll*46CO 3 +l*15CO + 474C+079S 
