Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1898-04-15
GUN-COTTON.
SAFEST OF THE HIGH EXPLOSIVES
FOR NAVAL WARFARE.

Something About Its Qualities and tho
Way In Which 1t Is Made-Precautions to
Mako It Nom Explosive In tho Ships Mag
azine-A Remarkable Discovery.
"Gun-cotton," said in ordnance Off
Ger few days ago, when aGked about
the qualities of this substance which
is used in the torpedoas carried by the
ships of the Navy, "is by far the safest
OF any of the high explosives. That is
the reason 1t is chosen instead of the
nitro-glycerine preparations, which,
although they will produce more pow
erful effects, are very dangerous things
to have on shipboar6. They can be
exploded too easily, by the application
OF heat, by shock, and, under some
conditions, by spontaneous combus-
tion. But the gun-cotton, as long as
1t is kept wet, is absolutely safe, and
there is no trouble about preserving
the necessary degree Of moisture"
Precisely the same opinion regarding
gun-cotton as an explosive for naval
warfare was expressed by the superin-
tendent of one of ths largest powder
manufacturing firms, q man who has
had much experience in the making of
gun-powder and gun-Gotton.
Not only is gun-cotton absolutely
inert and harmless so long as it is
wet" he said, but II does not neces-
sarily follow that it will explode even
when dry. OF course. it is then much
more liable to do so, but If 1t is undis-
turbed in any way n considerable
quantity OF it might remain dry with
out any accident. In our works we
are extremely careful about the way in
which we handle dry gun-cotton, but
there is no need of any precautions
when it is wet. On shipboard
the disks of dry cotton which are
used as primers to detonate the wet
are always kept away from the maya
zines, either on deck or in one of the
cabins. The only danger from them
would be in case they were dropped
while being handled. The result then
would not always-per haps not usually
be an explosion, but you never can
tell with certainty. One of the disks
might be dropped half dozen times
and not explode, and the next time,
under apparently the same conditions,
1t would go off,"
The process by which so common
and harmless a substance as cotton is
converted into a high explosive is a
comparatively simple one. Pure raw
cotton or ordinary cotton waste Is
STEPPED in solution of one part of nj
trio acid and three parts of sulphuric
&c he 1T
renders the cotton explosive, the pres
ence OF the sulphuric being required
only to absorb the water, thus allow
Ing the other acid to combine more
readily with the nearly pure cellulose
or which cotton consists. After the
cotton has soaked in the acids for sew
eral hours, 1t is takep from the pots
and squeezed through heavy rollers to
extract all the superfiuous acid which
1t has not absorbed. Then it is wash
ed carefully and thoroughly, still with
the same object of removing the free
acid.
1t is now passed through a machine
similar to that which grinds up the
rags in a paper-mill. Here it is crush
ed thoroughly and atterward washed
again until the last trace of free acid
disappears, and the cotton comes out in
the form of soft, white pulp, closely
resembling the pulp of which paper
is made. This concludes the process
OF actual manufacture, and it now re-
mains only to convert the gun-cotton
into the most convenient form for the
use to which 1t is to be put. If it is
to be employed in making powder. it
is dried and stored away in pulverized
form, but II 1t is designed for filling
torpedoes it must be compressed to a
certain density and moulded into the
shapes which will bess enable it to be
packed into the torpedo heads. If un-
compressed and dry, the gun-cotton is
extremely light, weighing no more
than ordinary cotton batting. So safe
from explosion, unless detonated. is n
brick of wet gun-cott2n, that it may
be placed upon hot Goals. AS the
moisture dries off from the outside.
the cotton flakes off and burns I'D
quietly.