84 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
With this prophecy the article concludes. It will be observed that the 
gun-cotton whose future the writer thus predicts is not (according to him) 
due to the improvements of Baron von Lenk, but to,the invention of a 
person whose name he refrains from giving. Nevertheless the qualities 
which he attributes to it are precisely those which Lenkas cotton is said to 
possess, and which constitute its claims to our consideration. I have not 
met w T ith any notice of these statements elsewhere, but the inference to be 
drawn from the terms of the report which the Austrian Professors made to 
Baron von Kempen in June I 860 ,* would be opposed to them; and the 
fact that Baron von Lenk was permitted by the Emperor to come over to 
England and Prance with the view of furnishing information on the subject, 
is also adverse to the supposition that a more creditable agent might have 
been sent. At any rate it w r ould be unwise to accept the assertions as facts 
until they are supported by some evidence. Baron von Lenkas visit to 
England is mentioned in the article, and some surprise is expressed that any 
gun-cotton which he had made should get so good a reception.! In Prance 
however he has been equally well received; gun-cotton is being made in 
England on his system for experiments there, and the Emperor Napoleon 
has, within the last few wrneks, acknowledged his services by conferring upon 
him the decoration of a Commander of the Legion of Honour. 
Baron von Lenk's visit to this country arose from the subject of gun¬ 
cotton being taken up by the British Association, to wdiom Major-General 
Sabine, R.A. President of the Royal Society, had suggested its consideration 
in 1862. The Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into it was 
presented to the next meeting of the Association, it was also brought under 
the notice of Government, and the importance of the facts winch it brought 
forward led to the institution of the present Official inquiry. 
Manufacture of Gun-cotton. 
Among the other advantages offered as inducements for using gun-cotton 
instead of gunpowder, the comparative ease with which it is manufactured 
and the absence of any danger throughout the operation are specially 
mentioned. The latter statement appears at first sight to be at variance 
with w 7 hat occurred at Peversham in 1847, but it may be explained by the 
experience which has been gained since that time. The report of the 
Austrian chemists, already noticed, declares that the manufacture “ consists 
of a number of perfectly harmless operations,” and that if fire is not actually 
applied explosion is impossible. The cotton which is being subjected to any 
handling is always in so damp a state that it must be free from that source 
of risk, and in the last stage of the process, when it has to be thoroughly 
dried, arrangements are easily made for communicating the heat with perfect 
safety. 
At Hirtenberg, the Austrian establishment, no accident has occurred 
* Tide Yol. III. p. 367. 
f Obgleich er eben nur seine Schiesswolle mifcbrachfce, so fand dieselbe eine unerwartet glinstige 
Avifnabme. 
