The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-04-29
GUN-COTTON.
SAFEST OF THE HIGH EXPLOSIVES
FOR NAVAL WARFARE.

OAFEOI OF I7G t7lGF1 Explosives
FOR NAVAL WARFARE.
Something About Its Qualities and the
Way in Which 1t is NIade-Precaution to
Make 1t Nom Ex plosive in the Ships Mag
azine-A Remarkable Discovery.
"Gun-cotton," said an ordnance Off
Ger a few days ago, when asked about
the qualities of this substance which
is used in the torpedoes carried by the
ships of the Navy, sis by far the safest
of any of the high explosives. That is
the reason it is chosen instead of the
nitro-glycerine preparations, which,
although they will produce more pow
erful effects, are very dangerous things
to have on shipboard. They can be
exploded too easily, by the application
of heat, by shock, and, under some
conditions, by spontaneous combus-
ton. But the gun-cotton, as long as
/ it 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 the largest powder
manufacturing firms, man who has
had much experience in the making of
gun-powder and gun-cotton.
"Not only is gun-cotton absolutely
inert and harmless so long. as it is
wet" he said, ."but it 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 it is undis-
turbed in any way a 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 1t is wet. On shipboard
the disks of dry cotton which are
used as primers to detonate the wet
are always kept away from the maga-
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 perhaps 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,
it would go off,.
The process by which so common
and harmless substance as cotton is
converted into 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
acid. The nitric acid is the one which
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
OF which cotton consists. After the
cotton has soaked in the acids for sew
eral hours, 1t Is taken from the pots
and squeezed through heavy rollers to
extract all the superfluous 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 paper-mill. Here it is crush
ed thoroughly and afterward 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 conve lient form for the
use to which it is u be put. Ii it is
to be employed in making powder, it
is dried and stored way in pulverized
form, but If it is designed for filling
torpedoes it must b. compressed to a
certain density and moulded into the
shapes which will best 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 cottor batting. So safe
from explosion, unless detonated, is
brick of wet gun-co ton, that it may
be placed upon hQc Goals. AS the
moisture dries off from the outside
the cotton flakes of and burns I'M
quietly.