The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-11-02
Our Oliu.
Things which Bum Faster than GunpOwder.

About thirty-two years ago, Schonbein,
German chemist, had occasion to i'm
merse cotton In mixture of concentrated
nitric and sulphuric acids To his sur
prise, he noticed that the cotton did not
dissolve. Taking it, and washing off the
acid, ne placed it in drying-oven to dry.
On returning the next morning no cotton
was TO be seen. As the students in his
laboratory affirmed that they had not med
died with it, he wondered much as to what
had become Of it. He tried the expert
ment again, and this time he had the good
fortune to witness the disappearance of
the cotton. He had discovered gun-cot-
ton! This is a very curious substance,
although it does not differ u appearance
from ordinary cotton. 1t is, however, a
tritie heavier. Strange to say, the maa-
ner in which fire is applied to this causes
it to burn very differently Touch it with
a live coal or lighted cigar, and it burns
away very slowly-much like the mixture
used to produce the colorcd fTes ,sF Fourth
of-July nights. Apply flame to it, aud
It explodes like gunpowder; but if you FIRE
1t by means of 4 Illuminating cap. it ex-
plodes with terrific violence, and with a
rapidity six or seven times greater. But
there Is another substance which explodes
even more terribly still. 1t is nitro. .glyce
rine. This is produced somewhat similarly
to gun-cotton, with the exception that
glyeerine is used instead of cotton-these
substances being verymuch alike in chem
ical composition. Nitro-glycerine is a dense,
oily liquid, which has a very safe and
harmless appearance, but in reality it is
something terrible. A small quantity
placed upon huge boulder, and fred, will
blow it into a thousand pieces; whereas.
with gunpowder, the result would have
been merely fash, and a great puff of
wind and smoke You wonder, perhaps.
how it is that nitro-glycerine merely placed
upon stone and exploded, can possibly
break it, as you think that the air will give
way so much sooner than the stone. Let
us consider two or three things which will
make it easier to understand. You know
very well that it is hard work to run with
kite yard square in your hand. with
the face of the kite against the wind.
Now, suppose you jump upon a locomotive
running forty miles an hour. You would
find it utterly impossible to hold the kite
as you did before; and, even if you could,
paper kite would not stand the pressure.
In imagination increase your velocity to
that of a cannon-ball, or twelve miles a
minute. Your kite, though made Of the
strongest cloth, would then give way like
so much wet paper. The truth is, the air
is a very unyielding substance, indeed, to
bodies moving with high velocity. Now,
the rapidity with which the gas formed by
the combustion of nitro-glycerine expands
is a hundred times that Of cannon-ball.
and the atmosphere offers more resistance
to body moving at that rate than the
stone beneath it. Nitro-glycerine in some
of its forms is the agent almost universally
employed in blasting Without it many
of the great railway tunnels a1d other feats
of engineering would have been impossible.
The compounds of nitro-slyeerine are
many. Mixed with tripoli, or rotten
stone, it becomes dynamite, or "die-in-a-
minute, as some wag has facetiously
termed it; this, adulterated with nitrate Of
soda or potash, is known as giant-powder.
When nitro-glycerine is mixed with gun
powder in very fnely-divided state, it is
called read-rock powder; with saw-dust,
qualin. These are, however, all adultera-
tions, ard weaken the power of the explo-
sive.