Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-05-04
CHlSELING GUN.COTTON.
An Expert Tells What May Be Done with
tho Explosive.

the Explosive.
Gun-cotton, said Prof. Monroe, in his
lecture on that explosive at the Lowell
Institute, Boston, a few nights ago, is
pure cotton dipped in mixture of pure
nitric and sulphuric acids. In seeking
a method by which these ingredients
might be obtained absolutely pure and
the cotton thoroughly treated with the
acids many years have been spent and
serious accidents have occurred.
The lecturer, says the Boston Herald,
traced the experiments with the explo-
sive from its discovery, in 1882, up to the
present time, and spoke of several of
the most fatal explosions which attended
the experimental stage.
After experiments by Prof. Hill, of
the United States torpedo station, gun
cotton was adopted as an explosive for
use in the navy in 1884. In preparing
it for this service the gun-cotton is by
successive DRESSINGS in hydraulic
presses, the last of which has press
ure OF six thousand eight hundred
pounds to the square inch, made into
little blocks measuring two and one
half inches each way. 1t now contains
from ten to sixteen per cent. of water,
but when issued to the service contains
thirty per cent. Before being made
up into blocks it is carefully tested.
Prof. Munroe declared that gun-cot-
ton, correctly prepared and handled ac-
cording to directions, was the safest of
the explosives to use. 1t was danger
Gus only when the materials had not
been thoroughly purified, or the union
OF acid and cotton incomplete.
Tn 81
it picture was thrown upon the screen
| showing the worlzmen cutting it with
chisel, jig saw and lathe to fit it into
| shell. Another illustration was the ex-
| tinguishing of a block that was burn
| ing by pouring water upon it. Two
thousand pounds of it had been burned
in bonfire without an explosion.
One volume of the explosive gives
eight hundred and twenty-nine of the
gas, and the pressure developed by COM
bustion is eighty-one tons to the square
inch, and by detonation one hundred
| and fifty-seven and five-tenths tons, the
latter being in contact, however. The
| effect of the explosion of one particle
on another is SO rapid that it would
take only one second for it to pass
through nineteen thousand feet of the
explosive.
| 1t was shown by the stereopticon
that the letters u. s. N, with the date
of manufacture, that are on the bottom
OF each block, arc impressed upon an
! iron plate, upon which the gun-cotton
may be exploded. 1t is curious fact
that If the marks on the block are in re-
lief the reproduction on the iron will be
raised, and if cut in, there will be an
indentation on the plate. Prof. Mum
roe's theory is that when the letters are
cut into the explosive the gases gen
Grated in the indentations are hurled
from them as q projectile from gun.
If n leaf or n delicate piece of lace be
laid between the gun-cotton and the
iron, its impress will be left in all the
perfection of outline of the original,
though the article itself is absolutely
epnihilated.
Robinson Crusoo's Isiand.
The island of Juan Fernandez, once
inhabited by Robinson Crusoe, is now
tenanted by a former Austrian officer,
Baron Won Rodth, who, after being
forced by the terrible Wounds which he
received at the battle of Sadowa in
1866 to leave the army, grew tired Of
the monotony Of existence in civilized
Europe and determined to devote his
fortune to n life of adventure. For
fifteen years past, says Harper's Week
ly, he has been living on the island Of
Juan Fernandez with n small colony of
natives and of European deserters
from civilization and only oommuni-
eating with the world once n year, when
he sends his fine sailing yacht to Val
paraiso for provisions and supplies.
The south may change as the years
pass by; the negro may be blended
with the white, and lost from view in
the millions who will yet people that
lovely southern land, but the songs of
slavery, the wondrous expressions of
all the music Of a hapless race, will live
forever and be surg in future ages by
men and women who can claim no trace
| of African linea1a oD5 ,u1,o ..,:l1 :.