THE EOYAL AETILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
383 
ON THE PRODUCTS 
OV THE 
COMBUSTION OF GUN COTTON AND GUNPOWDEB 
UNDEE CIECUMSTANCES ANALOGOUS TO THOSE WHICH 
OCCUE IN PEACTICE. 
BY LIEUTENANT von KAROLYI * 
[Eeprinted, with permission of the Proprietors, from the Philosophical Magazine of October, 1863]. 
[COMMUNICATED BY THE SECEETAEY, E.A.I.] 
The gun cotton manufactured according to Major-General Ereiherr von 
Lenk's method at Hirtenberg near Wiener Neustadt, has, in consequence of 
special previous experiments, been used by the Genie Corps for mining 
purposes; and notwithstanding the fact that there are still numerous 
difficulties in the way of its use for gun charges, it is also used by the Royal 
Imperial Artillery for hollow projectiles. 
The first mentioned use led the Genie Committee, to which I belong, to 
cause experiments to be made which are calculated to give greater insight 
into the chemical deportment of this substance. Among these is the attempt 
to ascertain the products of combustion of the gun cotton produced in 
Hirtenberg; and in the course of the investigation it seemed advisable to 
extend the method I used to gunpowder. 
1. Analysis of the 'Products of Combustion of Gun Cotton . 
The rapid deflagration of gun cotton, and its necessary accompaniment, 
the bursting action, prevented me from using in the analysis of the products 
of combustion the excellent method which Professor Bunsent devised, for 
obtaining the combustion products of gunpowder for the purpose of analysis. 
It was necessary to effect the combustion in vacuo, and for this purpose I 
used a eudiometer about a metre in length, in which, instead of two wires, as 
in the ordinary eudiometre, a single very thin platinum wire was drawn across. 
To this from 15 to 20 milligrammes of gun cotton were affixed, the tube 
* Translated from Poggendorff’s Annalen , April 1863, by Dr Atkinson, Eoyal Military 
College, Sandhurst. 
f Phil. Mag. Vol. XV. p. 489. 
[VOL. III.] L L 
