70 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Results obtained from various Experiments . 
It cannot be denied that any material with the preceding qualifications 
would be an improvement on gunpowder if it possessed the important ones 
in a high degree, and if there were a sufficient uniformity of strength 
between all the samples that were made by the same treatment. Neither 
can it be reasonably doubted that gun-cotton, when in good order, has 
many of the advantages claimed for it. To what extent it possesses them is 
another question; the statements which have been made about the improved 
material rest principally on the authority of its acknowledged supporters, and 
have not yet been put to any independent tests. In the country where the 
subject has received most attention gun-cotton has bitter opponents as well 
as earnest advocates, and we know that the former have so far prevailed on 
more than one occasion that the inquiry has been dropped, and the orders 
for introducing it have been withdrawn. The following statistical notes 
must not therefore be taken as established facts, applicable to all cases, but 
as the results of such experiments as the advocates of gun-cotton bring 
forward in support of their opinions. Most of them are extracted from the 
Eeport of the British Association, to whom they were communicated by 
Baron von Lenk, and it will be interesting to observe how far they are 
corroborated by trials in this country. 
General rate of firing. —100 rounds can be fired with cotton to every 30 
rounds with powder. 
Heating effect on the gun. —100 rounds were fired by the Austrian 
Commissioners from a 6-pr. with cotton, in 34 minutes, and the temperature 
of the gun was raised only to 122°*: 80 rounds more were fired without any 
danger being apprehended. With powder, 100 rounds could not be fired in 
less than 100 minutes, yet the gun became so much heated that water, when 
dropped upon it, immediately evaporated with noise, and it was not thought 
safe to continue the firing. 
Recoil. —In the trials made by the Austrian Commissioners in 1860, the 
recoil of the gun with cotton was found to be only two-thirds of the recoil 
with gunpowder. 
Fouling. —The deposit from gun-cotton is so slight that the barrel 
requires no cleaning. In gunpowder the waste, or useless portion of every 
charge amounts to no less than 68 per cent., most of which is thrown out at 
the muzzle, the rest being deposited on the sides of the bore. 
Smoke. —An experiment to ascertain the advantage which might result 
from the absence of smoke was made in 1852 by a committee of which 
General von Hauslab was President. The trial took place in some casemates 
at the fortress of Comorn, the ventilation of which was purposely stopped. 
After twelve or fifteen rounds with powder any aiming became impossible ; 
after 30 rounds some of the men fainted, and when brought into the open 
air, they required the administration of active remedies by the surgeons in 
attendance before they recovered. After 50 rounds the smoke was so thick 
* The temperatures are given in degrees of Fahrenheit throughout this article. 
