Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-02-09
GUN COTTON
Terrible Explosive is Made Of Innocent
Staple Product.

Terrible Explosive 10 Maoe OF innocent
Staple Product.
Gun cotton or, rather, the tremend-
Gus use Of gun cotton, Is likely to
make linters much more valuable this
year than they would be under nor
NAL conditions and indirectly affect
favorably the price Of the whole cot
ton crop. 1t Is possible that the
year will approximate 8OO,OOO,OO
pounds, or 100000 bales of linters.
Roughly speaking, one pound Of cot
ton makes one pound Of powder. The
best cotton for the powder manufac-
turer is the delintered stuff that Is
shaved from the seed after the real
cotton Of commerce is ginned. The
shorter the linters the better for the
powder makers purpose, for the stuff
IS put through a machine and chopped
for eight hours by knives until the
fragments are reduced to lengths
smaller than three one-hundredths Of
an inch. Then the cotton is treated
with nitric and sulphuric acid until
the liquid gets all through the fibre.
The next treatment is to get rid or
all surplus acid for thin as Is each
Individual fibre, it is formed like the
body of a tree and has cover not un-
like the bark of a tree, into the lines
or valleys Of which the acid sinks.
Next the cotton Is mixed with So
luton of ether and alcohol. When 1t
energies from this treatment, 1t does
not look anything like cotton, but Is
plastic like clay. Its color is deter
mined, largely, by the character of the
water in which it is washed in getting
the surplus acid out.
In the United States there are five
powder manufactures. Two OF these
are owned by the government, one be-
ing at Dover, n. j., and the other at
indian Head on the Potomac. or the
private concerns those at karneys
Point, near Wilmington, Del, and al
Haskell, N. j., are owned by the Du-
points. The one at Parlin, N. j., Is
owned by the International Powder
Co., which formerly was controlled
by the Dupont company and Is not
supposed to be antagonistic to 1t to-
day.
All the powder plants Of America
produce normally 100000 pounds Of
powder a year. Working on orders
they might turn out 100000 pounds
year That would mean 10000 bales
OF linters. The highest authority In
America on powder says the maximum
capacity Of this country in powder
making would not exceed $4,000 bales
of lnters He thinks 10000 Is rea-
sonable.
The plans abroad have a much larg.
er capacity than those Of the United
States, but all Of the foreign powder
is not made of gun cotton. While Rus-
sia, France and Germany depend on
gun cotton exclusively, England. Aus
lria, Italy, Sweden and Norway use
trinitrotolulol and picri acid in the
making of some powder. OF England S
production Of powder probably 10 per
cent Is of gun cotton. or Austria 3,
Italy's, Sweden's and Norway's, the
percentage is from SO to 10 OF gun
cotton. They would use gun cotton
exclusively If they could not get trlnl-
trotolulol.
The American authority referred to
estimates the total European capacity
in powder-making at from ten 10
twenty times that Of the Uunted
States. Accepting the maximum Tor
present purposes that would mean
zoe, 600, 900 pounds total, or 6O0,OOo
bales of linters If all the manutactoT-
les used gun cotton exclusively, winch
as stated in the previous paragraph,
they do not.
II is pointed out by the powder eX-
pert that the nations now at war are
not using their big guns as much as
in the early days of the war. There
NAV be a reason. 1t is the big gun
that eats up gun cotton. A l2-incn
gun uses up 800 pounds Of powder
every time it is fired. That Is as much
as is employed in the firing OF 42,OoV
shots from the ordinary rifle OF the
infantry 1t equals, too, the amour
of powder that would be used in the
firing of a field gun $50 times.
1t is in a sea fight between battle
ships that gun cotton is burned at
great rate. 1t is Theoretically pos
sible for a battleship to use from 5000
to 5000 pounds Of powder minute, or
from ten to twelve bales OF cotton a
minute in firing all its guns.-Com-
merce and Finance.