Improvements in the Manufacture of Gunpowder and of Gunpowder Charges for Guns.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Dec., 1886.
Complete Left, 17th Sept., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 18th Oct., 1887
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Gunpowder and of Gunpowder
Charges for Guns.
I, WILLIAM HENRY NOBLE of United Service Club, Pall Mall in the County of
Middlesex, Colonel in the Royal Artillery, do hereby declare the nature of this inven→
tion to be as follows:-
When
The proportion of carbon in the charcoal used for manufacturing gunpowder is
subject to great variation according as the material used for charring and the rapidity
of charring vary. According to my invention I provide for securing uniformity of
constitution in the charcoal used, which I effect in the following manner.
wood is to be charred, I crush it in the first place, in order to secure greater thorough-
ness and uniformity of charring. Some of this I char rapidly and some slowly thereby.
producing charcoals containing various proportions of carbon, and I mix these different
charcoals in suitable proportions to give the desired proportion of carbon in the
mixture. In many cases I employ, either alone or in admixture with charcoal, turf
or bog-stuff not charred, taking care in the first instance to purify it by washing and
then to dry it and grind it to a fine powder.
In manufacturing charges for guns consisting of cylinders of compressed gunpowder,
I make these cylinders by putting together a number of parts each having a transverse
section which is a sector of the circle. Through these sectors I form longitudinal
holes and along their meeting faces I form grooves which when the parts are put
together present themselves also as longitudinal holes through the charge.
Datad this 17th day of Dananber 1886
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in the Manufacture of Gunpowder and of Gunpowder
Charges for Guns.
I, WILLIAM HENRY NOBLE of the United Service Club, Pall Mall in the County of
Middlesex, Colonel in the Royal Artillery do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The proportion of carbon in the charcoal used for manufacturing gunpowder is
subject to great variation according as the material used for charring and the rapidity
of charring vary. According to my invention, I provide for securing uniformity of
constitution in the charcoal used, which I effect in the following manner. When
wood is to be charred, I cut it into pieces and crush them in the first place, in order
to secure greater thoroughness and uniformity of charring. Some of this I char
rapidly and some slowly thereby producing charcoals containing various proportions
of carbon, and having tested these different charcoals I mix them in suitable propor-
tions to give the desired proportion of carbon in the mixture. In many cases I
employ either alone or in admixture with charcoal turf or bog stuff not charred, taking
care in the first instance to purify it by washing and then to dry it and grind it to a
fine powder.
Although I have used the term gunpowder which usually consists of charcoal sulphur
and saltpetre, it is to be understood that the mode which I have described of preparing
charcoal or bog stuff is equally applicable to other explosives in which these substances
are employed.
In manufacturing charges for guns consisting of cylinders of compressed
gunpowder, I make these cylinders by putting together a number of parts each
having a transverse section which is a sector of the circle. Through these sectors
I form longitudinal holes and along their meeting faces I form grooves which, when
the parts are put together present themselves also as longitudinal holes through
the charge.
In the accompanying drawings I have shewn several forms of sectors suitable for
making up gun charges. Figs. I and II shew sectors dividing the circular section
into three parts, which may be simply rounded at the corners as in Fig. I or may
have grooves along their meeting faces as in Fig. II. As shewn in Fig. III each
sector is a quadrant with rounded corners and a hole through it. And a sector of
like kind suitable for division of the circle into six parts as shewn at Fig. IV.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In the manufacture of gunpowder or analagous explosives, the herein described
method of securing uniformnity in the carbonaceous substances employed by preparing
separately charcoals of various characters and mixing them in suitable proportions
with or without powdered bog stuff or turf.
2. Forming charges for guns by putting together a number of pieces of compressed
explosive, each piece moulded in the form of a sector of a cylinder, with suitable
perforations and grooves.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.