The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-08-01
Experiments with Non-Explo
sive Gunpowder.

SlVe OunpOWder.
The London Times of June 22d has
the following account of an interesting
series of experiments:
"1he final government trials 10 test TO
the utmost the value of Mr.. Gales dis
covery of non-cxplosive gunpowder, were
made on the largest scale on Wednesday
afternoon and evening, in one of the Mar
tello towers on the beach halfway between
Hastings and Rye. Everything connect
e1 with these experiments was entirely
managed by the members of the Ordnance
Select Committee, and workmen from
Woolwich Arsenal were employed TO
mix the strongest government powder
with the protecting composition, to barrel
it, and 10 stack it in the Martello tower.
Mr.. Gales only share in the proceedings
was that he furnished the protecting com
pound, that his directions as TO its mix
ture were implicitly followed, and that
when all was ready he was invited to be
present at these official tests, which, like
all such, were very properly of the most
severe and exacting kind. In The result
they proved most triumphantly that Mr.
Gale is right when he ASSERTS that by
means of his mixture the strongest pouoier
can easily be rendered not only noa-e1ploSire,
Jm evcn almost mcombushbte, and this
without in the slightest degree deteriorat-
ing from its destructive power when the
powder is separated, as it can be
at once, from his protecting CON-
pound. On Wednesday, certainly, all
efforts to blow up five tons of powder
when mixed according to Mr.. Gales d.
rections not only proved utterly fruitless,
but the powder actually twice went out,
and it was after all found necessary to set
fire TO the woodwork of the martello tow
er in which it was stored in order TO
consume it at all, and even then this was
not entirely accomplished. Nothing,
therefore, could possibly have been more
complete than the success of the expert
ment, though the value of the invention
will perhaps be more fully appreciated
if we explain in few words how simply
such an astounding result is brought about.
COATING POWDER WITH GLASS.
''It is nearly fifteen years since Mr..
Gale began to direct his attention as a
chemist and electrician to the discovery
of material which, when mixed with
gunpowder should render the whole mass
at once firepro,f, waterproof and alright,
and at the same time be easily separable,
and when separated leave the gunpowder
totally uninjured. 1t is needless TO say
how many and how combined were the
compositions tried before one at last was
found to fulfill all these apparently ire
conciable conditions. This composition
is nothing more nor less than powdered
glass prepared in peculiar manner.
The commonest glass is heated to bright
whlteness and then plunged into cold
water, which utterly destroys all the little
fibre and elasticity glass can ever be said
to possess, and renders it so frable as to
be easily pressed to powder between the
fingers. In this state it is placed in a
machine shaped like cask, in which
are many small iron shot, and the ma
chine being revolved rapidly minute or
minute and half suiiices to reduce the
glass to powder so impalpable that even
fine wheat -four is coarse in comparison
with the powder in the!proportion of two
parts TO one, if it only meant to render
it non-explosive, but still leave it fercely
combustible; in the proportion of three
parts of ground glass to one of common
powder, if il is meant to make it almost
incombustible; and in the proportion of
four parts to one of the strongest gunpow-
der to make the latter absolutely harmless.
-Four parts are, however, generally con-
sidered necessary only for the strongest
government common powder.
"The method. of mixing the two is
simply by an adaptation of Robinson's
cask cleaning machine, which gives to the
cask it holds rapid double motion, two
minutes of which is sufficient to blend the
ground glass and the coarse grains Of
powder perfectly. So complete is this
mixture that of forty samples taken from
as many casks after two minutes mixing
the relative proportions of the two ma
terials were found to be in all cases abso-
lutely exact. The forty.fve pound sam
plies when separated were all founl to
contain precisely one pound of gunpowder
and four pounds Of powdered glass The
separation of the powder from the glass is
made in a few seconds by coarse copper
sieves.
| POWDER MADE SAFE.
"One Of the most important questions
to be ascertained was whether the minute
portions of the powdered glass, which
more or less adhered to the grains of gun
powder after sitting, in any way affected
its explosive qualities. For some time
past, therefore, the Ordnance Select Com
mittee have made a most careful series of
experiments to resolve this doubt, and the
decision they have come 10 is that neither
in rapidity of ignition nor explosive force
is the gunpowder in any way d. teriorat,d.
Not only is it not injured, but its complete
preservation from damp-almost as i'm
portant in the case of powder as its pres
ervation from fre-makes Mr. Gales
present mode of stowage. The objections
to the bulk which powder when thus
MIXED would occupy in the government
stores have also in great measure dis
appeared upon examination, About