DR. H. DEBUS ON THE CHEMICAL THEORY OF GUNPOWDER. 
559 
Karolyi’s products contain a considerable amount of free carbon, which element is 
completely burnt in Noble and Abel’s experiments. 
If we now assume that Karolyi’s products had remained in contact at a high 
temperature, not a fraction of a second, but from one to two minutes, as was the case 
in Noble and Abel’s experiments, the free carbon would have been oxidised by 
oxygen contained in potassic sulphate, and the free sulphur would have reacted upon 
the potassium carbonate, and the final result of these reactions would have been a 
quantitative relationship between the products similar to that found by Noble and 
Abel. The potassic carbonate, the potassic disulphide, the carbonic oxide, and car¬ 
bonic acid would have increased, and the quantity of the potassic sulphate would have 
diminished. But the amount of potassic carbonate could not become greater if the 
reduction of the sulphate took place according to the equation : 
K 2 S0 4 +2C=K 3 S-f2C0 3 
hence, we must assume the formation of potassic disulphide. If we calculate from 
the analytical data of Karolyi the proportions of his products on the supposition 
that the carbon which had remained free had acted on potassic sulphate according to 
the equation : 
4K 3 SCh+ 7C=2K 3 C0 3 +2K 3 S 2 + 5C0 2 
we obtain : 
4-65K 3 C0 3 +lT2K 3 S0 4 +2-22K 3 S 3 +L4-08CO 3 +2-65CO 
quantities which are as near those found for the English powders as the composition 
of the Austrian rifle powder approaches those of Waltham Abbey. 
If the potassic hyposulphite found by Bunsen and Schischkofe originated during 
the analysis of their powder residue, then the latter contained, for 16 mols. of decom¬ 
posed saltpetre, 0‘45 mol. of K 3 S 2 and 0'33 mol. of K 3 S. 
Linck* found, amongst the products of the Wtirtemberg service powder, only potassic 
disulphide. 
From Noble and Abel’s! analysis of the products of English mining powder it 
would follow that for every 16 mols. of decomposed saltpetre, 4 mols. of K 0 S are formed 
and 5 atoms of sulphur left free; this would give us for the composition of the 
potassic sulphide 2 atoms of potassium and 2'25 atoms of sulphur. 
From these facts we conclude that the second stage of the combustion of gunpowder 
takes place according to the equations : 
4K 3 C0 3 +7S=K 3 S0 1 +3K 2 S jJ +4C0 i j .(V.) 
4K 3 S0 4 +7C=2K 3 C0 3 +2K 3 S 3 +5C0 2 .(VI.) 
* Ann. der Chemie nnd Pharm., Bd. cix (1859), p. 53. 
f Phil. Trans. (1880), p. 207. 
4 C 
MDCCCLXXXIJ. 
