IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS AND OF BLASTING CHARGES FOR MINING AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Joseph Mackie, of 3, Delahay Street, in
the City of Westminster, Camille Alphonse Faure, of 44, South
Road, Faversham, in the County of Kent, and George. Trench, of
Broomfield House, Oare, Faversham, aforesaid, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS AND OF
BLASTING CHARGES FOR MINING AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 4th August 1874, and dated the 13th June 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Joseph
Mackie, Camille Alphonse Faure, and George Trench at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
13th June 1874.
C
We, SAMUEL JOSEPH MACKIE, of 3, Delahay Street, in the City of
Westminster, CAMILLE ALPHONSE FAURE, of 44, South Road, Faversham,
in the County of Kent, and GEORGE TRENCH, of Broomfield House,
Oare, Faversham, aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE COM-
POUNDS AND OF BLASTING CHARGES FOR MINING AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-

page_text: The object of this Invention is to make a gunpowder or mining
powder of any desired strength, and of such form and density that it will
be regular in its action, also that it will stand being carried about
without crumbling to dust or otherwise deteriorating, and that it will be
easily transferred by passing out from one vessel into another, and also
for object to greatly increase the effect of mining charges by filling the
bore holes with different ingredients or powder that are better carried
separately on account of safety.
We attain the first object by mixing or incorporating with or without
the aid of water either gun cotton reduced to powder or gun cotton
pulped with a certain proportion of nitre or other oxidising substance,
afterwards drying it within four or five per cent. of moisture, and then
passing it between smooth rollers with considerable pressure. The cakes
thus obtained are afterwards corned or broken by machines or appliances
similar in their actions to the ordinary corning machines used in gun-
powder factories.
The gun cotton in use may be soluble gun cotton or pure pyroxilinc,
or a mixture of soluble or insoluble gun cotton, and we regulate the
strength of the powder by the proper adjustment of the proportions of
the different sorts of gun cotton with nitre or other oxidising agents,
together with the adjustment of the density of the cake produced by the
rollers. The rollers may, if desired, be somewhat grooved or corru
gated on their surfaces if desired.
Sometimes we introduce other substances such as alkalies for the
better preservation of the explosives against decomposition, and we
introduce also non-explosive substances to reduce the strength of the
explosive.
We also in some cases use sugar of milk as a controlling agent of gun
cotton and such like explosives.
Where great strength is required; as for instance in mining, we use
chlorate of potash in conjunction with the above mentioned powder.
The chlorate of potash and the powder being separately carried to the
bore hole and there mixed at the time of loading, thereby avoiding great
danger in the carriage. This part of the Invention consists therefore
in the loading a mine with a granulated powder of any degree of
coarseness or fineness, and chlorate of potash cither in layers and more
or less mixed by hand.

page_text: In manufacturing gun cotton we employ hydraulic presses for ex-
pressing the acid from the cotton after it has been removed from the
acid bath and we regulate the amount of acid left in the cotton by the
extent of pressure used, thereby controlling the degree of conversion
of the fibre.
For washing gun cotton and such likes explosives to cleanse them
from acid and other impurities, we employ air or steam pumped or forced
through the water tanks or receptacles in which such explosives are
being washed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said Samuel Joseph Mackic, Camille Alphonse Faure, and
George Trench in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th December
1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
JOSEPH MACKIE, of 3, Delahay Street, in the City of Westminster,
CAMILLE ALPHONSE FAURE, of 44, South Road, Faversham, in the County
of Kent, and GEORGE TRENCH, of Broomfield House, Oare, Faversham,
aforesaid, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto the said Samuel Joseph Mackie, Camille Alphonse
Faure, and George Trench, Her special license that we, the said Samuel
Joseph Mackie, Camille Alphonse Faure, and George Trench, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Samuel Joseph Mackie, Camille Alphonse Faure, and George Trench,
our 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS AND OF BLASTING CHARGES FOR MINING
AND OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Samuel Joseph Mackie, Camille Alphonse Faure, and George Trench,

page_text: our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our
or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or
them, 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 months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Joseph Mackie, Camille
Alphonse Faure, and George Trench, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is to make a gunpowder or mining
powder of any desired strength, and of such form and density that it will
be regular in its action, also that it will stand being carried about
without crumbling to dust or otherwise deteriorating, and that it will be
easily transferred by pouring out from one vessel into another, and also
the Invention has for its object to greatly increase the effect of mining
charges by filling the bore holes with different ingredients or powders
that are better carried separately for safety.
To obtain the first object by mixing or incorporating (with or without
the aid of water, but the former is preferred) either gun cotton reduced
to powder, by preference, by means of a roller mill or gun cotton pulped
with a certain proportion, say30 per cent. of nitre or other oxidising
substance, such as chlorate of potash. Afterwards we dry the compound
within four or five per cent. of moisture and then pass it between
smooth rollers with considerable pressure. This roller is similar in its
construction and action to the roller mill referred to in the Specification
of Mackie's Patent, No. 2693, in the year 1872. The thickness of the
cake produced should be about one-eighth of an inch. The diameter of
the rollers may be conveniently be 2 feet. The cakes thus obtained are
afterwards corned or broken by machines or appliances similar or
identical in their actions to the ordinary corning machines used in gun-
powder factories.
The gun cotton we use may be soluble gun cotton or pure pyroxiline,
or a mixture of soluble and insoluble gun cotton. For mining charges
hout 20 sont of solubla

page_text: .
For washing gun cotton and such like explosives to cleanse them
from acid and other impurities we employ air or steam pumped or
forced through the water tanks or receptacles in which such explosives
are being washed. We use a taper vat made of wood, and in the shape
of an inverted four sided pyramid, 12 feet high, 7 feet square at top, and
one foot square at bottom. The gun cotton in powder, say one ton with
as much water as to nearly fill the vat is put in, and air is forced through
the bottom by means of an ordinary air pump. The air thus keeps the
whole mass in a continual agitation, and as the water is occasionally
strained off and replaced the washing is accomplished. Steam may be
employed in place of air, or both combined.