The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-02-10
Gun-Cottoh;

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"A curious discovery has lately been
made in Connection, with ;gun-cotton,
which can hardly fail to be. attended
with important and valuable results:
1t has hitherto been deemed impessi-
bic to effect an explosion with gun
cotton, unless the substance were
strongly confined. 1t, had lazy way
of burning, merely with sort of puff, ;,
and sneaking out of any channel of cs-
cape which might. be open to 1t. So
thoroughly established was this cha
racteristic of gun-cotton, that a com
mon lecture experiment, has been to
ignite puff of it lying in the naked
palm of the hand, or to fire small
quantity resting on one plate of a
nicely balanced scale. The hand was
not burned, the balance of the scale
was not disturbed, and this because of
that peculiar property of gun,cotton,
which i,npelled it TO get rid OF its fore e
in the easiest and most harmless man
per. Confne the same quantity of
gun cotton in stout case, give it work
to do, and it straight way produces
effects equivalent to those of six times
the weight of gun powder. But it
has now been discovered, in the course
of some experiments at the W ar Office
Chemical Establishment, .Wool-wicl,
that by igniting gun-cotton in the
same way as Mr.. Noble ignites has
nitro-glycerine, viz: by concussion,
produced by the explosion in contact
with it of a small charge OF decorating
powder, the full effects of gun-cotton
are developed whether it be confined
or not. Nay, more than the full ef-
f cts-if it is not an 1rishism to say
so-for it appears that the gun cotton
fired by concussion eXerts force equal
to that of nitro-glycerine, or early
ten times that of gunpowder. Thus,
whereas gun cotton fired by simple
ignition, puffs off harmlessly when un-
confined, cxerting no destructive force
whatever upon the body upon which
it may be resting, the same quantity
of gun-eotton exploded by concussion
will shatter blocks of granite, break
up thick iron plates, and blow down
or destroy any body in contact with
it. This, we say, is a most important
discovery in many ways. In the first
plice it seems to strike death-blow
at the Il O. n tro-gk cerine, wheth-
er in its pure form, or disguised as
dynamite" or however applied, and
nitro-glycerine will be a monstrous
good-riddance. In the next place.
mining. of all descriptions, military al d
civil, becomes immensely facilitated,
while the dangerous operation OF
'tamping," is no longer required.
For torpedo and submarine purposes
the discovery will be especially useful. |
Gun-cotton had already been adopted |
as the agent fvsa' eecelzesce to be en-
ployed in torpedoes; but it will no
longer be necessary to enclose the
charges in stout, expensive iron cases,
as heretofore, in order to develope the
full effect. or, indeed, any effect at all
any case which is waterproof will an
swer all the purpose. For breaking
walls and stockades, gun-cotton fired
by conclusion has been shown by some |
recent experiments at Chatham to be
a mighty agent of destruction, and
can be more striking than to
see huge stockade cut clean in two,
as by knife by the simple explosion
of long-sausage shaped charge of
gun-cotton.-O'ace q Wcsk. I