114 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
GUN COTTON. 
The following extracts, from the Report of an Austrian military commission 
on gun cotton, will be found to contain information of some interest, not¬ 
withstanding its defective nature ; and in the absence of fuller details, which 
the Committee trust to be able to produce hereafter, will give Officers some 
idea of the grounds on which so great a military revolution as the partial 
substitution of this substance for gunpowder, is being worked out in Austria . 
J. H. L. 
During the autumn of 1861, the ministry of war (Kriegs-Ministeriuw) 
at Yienna, have appointed a commission to inquire into the merits of the 
new explosive material, and to give an opinion on the subject. 
The conspicuous and striking advantages, which this ncwchymical product 
attested, may be regarded as the motive of this measure taken by the War 
Department of Austria. 
It is however to be remarked, that in consequence of peculiar circum¬ 
stances, not to be entered upon at present, all the members of the said 
commission have been well known to be adverse to the new material, at least 
up to that time. 
Notwithstanding this circumstance, the said commissioners have, after a 
most thorough test based exclusively on actual experiments on a grand scale, 
given a Report to the following effect:— 
1. By equal effects in heavy ordnance and small guns, the weight of 
new material to the weight of gunpowder is in proportion of 1 to 3. 
£. The effect of the new material is far more constant ( bedeutend 
gleichmassiger) than that of gunpowder ; it must be acknowledged that the 
first named preparative by ensuring a higher precision of aim, is considerably 
superior to the second (ein wesentlicher Vorzug ). 
3. The new explosive material made in former times, and since duly 
preserved, shows, after the lapse of some considerable time, no alteration 
prejudicial to the effect and qualities of the said preparative. 
