IMPROVEMENTS IN BLASTING POWDER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Simon Davey, Merchant, residing at Rouen, France,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLASTING POWDER."
Sealed the 21st April 1859, and dated the 5th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Simon Davey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
: November 1858.
I, SIMON DAVEY, Merchant, residing at Rouen, France, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLASTING POWDER,”
to be as follows:-.
The improvements in. blasting powder consist, first, in the employment
of flour, bran, starch, or other glutinous or starchy matter to replace a part
of the charcoal pow.employed in the manufacture of powder.
Second, in a new mode of graining the same.
By. the substitution above named, the component parts are formed into a
paste, and are easily combined and grained without danger of explosion.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Simon Davey, Her special licence that I, the said
Simon Davey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Simon Davey, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLASTING POWDER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Simon Davey, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
mouths next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Simon Davey, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:―
Gunpowder in present use is manufactured from certain proportions of
nitrate of potash, sulphur, and charcoal, which, by the dangerous process of
trituration, are intimately combined; the mixture is afterwards pressed into
cakes, dried, and then broken into grains of different sizes according to the
use for which the powder is destined.
The nitrate of potash bas also been replaced by nitrate of soda, but this
latter is not usually employed, owing to the great facility with which powder
having nitrate of soda for its base attracts the dampness of the air, and is thus
rendered unfit for use.
Ordinary blasting powder has also the great inconvenience for mining
purposes of producing much smoke, and thereby occasioning great delay to
the workmen, at the same time being injurious to their health.
All these inconveniences and danger I have overcome by my Invention,
which consists, first, in the employment of flour, bran, starch, or other
glutinous or starchy matter to replace a part of the charcoal now employed in
the manufacture of powder.
Second, in a new mode of graining the same.

page_text: By the substitution above named, the component parts are formed into a
paste, and are easily combined and grained without danger of explosion. The
powder made according to my Invention produces little or no smoke. I
compose my powder as follows:-
16
12
"
8
"
sulphur,
charcoal;
flour, bran, starch, or other suitable
glutinous or viscous matter.
Or I take 63 parts by weight of nitrate of soda,
"
15
14
"
8
"
sulphur,
charcoal,
flour, bran, starch, or other similar
matter.
I do not, however, confine myself to these proportions, as they may be
modified according to circumstances.
The different component parts being separately reduced to powder are
mixed, which mixing may be effected by the means employed by firework
makers for making powder dust, by placing the matter to be mixed in a
barrel with a certain number of leaden bullets, and by causing the barrel to
revolve on its axis for a certain time; or the mixing may be otherwise
effected.
The component parts being mixed, I add sufficient water to make a thick
paste of the whole, and knead it to make it homogeneous. I roll into thin
cakes, and cut into grains; or, still better, while yet in a paste, I press my
composition through perforated or wire sieve, with apertures or holes of the
size of the grain to be produced. The matter falls on an endless canvas,
which is put slowly in motion, and passes on through a drying room, bearing
with it a thin covering of the blasting composition divided in strings or long
grains by the sieve, and after being dried I pass it between two rollers, which
break it into grains of a convenient size.
I place the composition, having nitrate of soda for its base, immediately after
it is manufactured, into waterproof envelopes, to preserve it from contact with
the atmosphere. These envelopes may be made of any suitable size and of
any suitable material.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,―
First, the particular composition of explosive powders herein-before
described.

page_text: Second, the employment of flour, bran, starch, or other suitable glutinous
or viscous matter for agglomerating the component parts of all kinds of
explosive power.
Third, cutting the cakes of blasting powder, prepared as before described,
into grains before drying.
And, fourth, pressing the materials for forming blasting powder through a
perforated or wire sieve while still in a paste, as herein-befor described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Simon Davey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Ingenieur Civil,
Boulev. de Strasbourg,
No. 23, à Paris..
S. DAVEY. (L.S.)