The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-04-07
FIGHT WITH COTTON
THOUSANDS OF BALES USED IN
MANUFACTURING POWDER

need OF ALL NATIONS
New Establishments Have Sprung Up
and are Manufacturing Cotton Into
Snokeless Powder for Use Of Euro
pean Nations Now Warning With
Each Other.
fBy Richard Spillane. il Commerce
and Finance.)
In article on gun cotton, printed
In Commerce and Finance on jan
uary 20, has been copied widely. 1t
told how smokeless powder is made
and gave the capacity of the powder
plants Of America and Europe.
While everything that was stated
Ia the article was correct at the
time Of its publication there has been
such an extraordinary change in the
situation since then, and the cotton
trade Is concerned so deeply in the
change that the whole subject as
sumes new and much more impor-
tant aspect.
In ordinary years the powder
plants Of America turn out 10000
600 pounds Of smokeleSS powder.
That means they use 10000 bales of
Enters or cotton. Their extreme ca
pacity was 100000 pounds or S0,-
900 bales Of cotton. So tremendous
have been the demands of the Euro
pean governments for powder that
the Dupont establishment, the larg-
seEt in the United States, has extended
its plants so that to-day they have q
capacity OF. between 100,000,000 and
I2a, ,G00,0 900 pounds year. That
means q consumption Of from 200,-
coo to 100000 bales Of cotton.
sss But big as the Dupont. establish
ments are, and rapidly as they have
been extended they have not been
able to keep MP with the needs Of the
) Warring nations. The high price the
European governments are willing to
pay has led various persons to en-
bark In the manufacture Of powder.
There Is no secret process to the
making OF smokeless powder, and the
whole thing, aside from its attend
ant and constant danger, is compara-
lively simple.
Roughly speaking, one round OF
cotton makes one pound O. WIDER.
The best cotton for the powder man
z srfacturer is the delintered stuff that
Is shared from the seed after the
real cotton OF commerce is ginned.
The shorted the Hnters the better for
the powder makers purpose, for the
stun Is put through a machine and
chopped for eight hours by knives
until the fragments are reduced to
lengths smaller than three one-hun-
dredths OF an inch. Then the cot
ton is treated with nitric and sui
phuric acid until the liquid gets all
through the fibre.
The next treatment is to get rid
OF all surplus acid for thin as is each
Individual: fibre it is formed Ike the
body of a tree and has a cover not
unlike the bark of tree, into the
lines or waller or which the acid
sinks.
Next the cotton Is mixed with a
solution of ether and alcohol. When
1t smerges from this treatment it
does not look anything like cotton,
but Is plastic like clay. It's color is
determined, largely, by the character
OF the water in which 1t is washed in
getting the surplus acid out.
How many independent plants
have sprung up in the last few
months It is difficult TO determine.
There are reports OF such plants in
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and else
where. The principal establishments
OF al the Dupont company are at
Haskell, N. j., and at kearney's
Point, near Wilmington, Del, but a
new and mammoth one is being built
on the shore Of the James river.
One OF the independent concerns
has an order from the Russian gov
ernment for all the powder it can
produce The first order was for l.
590, zoo pounds, but this soon was in
creased to its present unlimited scale.
This company thus far has been ship
ping at the rate OF 100000 pounds a
week and expects to increase the out.
put decidedly.
a new plant which is to begin op-
erations soon has contracted with a,
New York cotton house to supply it
with cotton at the rate Of 100 bales
day, or $4,000 hales a year. This
information comes from the New
York cotton exchange people who are
20 furnish the cotton.
Near Chicago, H., a new powder
,fant has been established which, it
! Is said, has q capacity Of 10000
sumption Of so bales day.
Old powder works in New Eng
Z land are reported to haye been re-
opened, and others are said to be in
the course Of reftting for use.
IL all the people who say they have
orders from abroad for powder and
have consulted with powder experts
regarding the establishment Of plants
embark in the business the produc-
tion OF America will be immense.
Full allowance must be given for ex-
aggeration In the talk Of these peo-
pie, but there Is no getting away from
the fact that the plants of the stand
ard powder concerns have been e1-
panded amazingly and that such IN
dependent companies as are in the
that the gross output Of the Dupont
works In ordinary times.
It was pointed out in the article of
last January that the plants abroad
had capacity from 10 to 20 times
greater than those OF the United
States, but all Of the foreign powder
: Is not made Of gun cotton. While
Russia, France and Germany depend
On gun cotton exclusively, England,
Austria, Italy, Sweden and Norway
use trinitrotolulol and picric acid in
the making Of some powder. OF
England's production Of powder
probably 10 per cent. is Of gun cot
ton. OF Austria's, Italy's, Sweden's
end Norway's, the percentage is from
SA IN cp ey,,D cotton Tb