IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN- POWDER FOR MINING AND WAR PURPOSES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to August Klein, of Leipzig, in the Kingdom of Saxony,
but now residing at De Kayser's Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN-
POWDER FOR MINING AND WAR PURPOSES."-A communication from abroad
by Gustav Adolph Neumeyer, residing at Döbitz, in the Kingdom of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said August Klein at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
June 1865.
I, AUGUST KLEIN, of Leipzig, in the Kingdom of Saxony, but now residing
at De Kayser's Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
GUNPOWDER FOR MINING AND WAR PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the production of a gunpowder applicable
both for mining and for war purposes, which is of a comparatively harmless
nature when ignited under any other conditions than those in which it is to
be employed, which is cheaper than ordinary powder, and which, on ignition,

page_text: will evolve much less of the obnoxious vapours that are produced by the
ignition of the ordinary powder. For this purpose about 75 parts by weight of
saltpetré are mixed with about 18.75 parts by weight of charcoal, and about
6.25 parts by weight of flowers of sulphur, to form 100 parts of gunpowder.
The charcoal is by preference prepared in the following manner :-Pieces of
birchwood are first ignited and are then immediately placed in a receptacle
which is closed hermetically. The charcoal thus obtained is then soaked in
soda-lye, and is dried upon canvass strainers; it is then reduced to a powder
and is mixed or incorporated in a moist state with the other ingredients in
about the proportions above mentioned. The mass thus produced may then
be treated in any known manner for converting it into a granular, pulverulent,
or solid form. This powder, when ignited in an unconfined space, burns
quietly and slowly without any explosive action, but if ignited in an enclosed
space it exerts as great an exploding force as an equal volume of ordinary
powder, and as its specific gravity is considerably less than that of such powder,
it is of course less expensive; it will never ignite through pressure or friction,
and it is therefore less dangerous than ordinary powder, and as the proportion
of sulphur employed is much less than in the latter, it follows that propor-
tionately less noxious vapours will be generated by its explosion, which is of
great importance in mining operations.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters. Patent, filed
by the said August Klein in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUST
KLEIN, of Leipzig, in. the Kingdom of Saxony, but now residing at De Kayser's
Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, IIer heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
August Klein, Her special licence that I, the said August Klein, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said August
Klein, 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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GUNPOWDER FOR
MINING AND WAR PURPOSES," a communication to me from abroad by Gustav
Adolph Neumeyer, residing at Döbitz, in the Kingdom of Saxony, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said August Klein, my executors or
administrators, 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 months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said August Klein, do hereby declare
the nature of the 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:-
This Invention has for its object the production of a gunpowder applicable
both for mining and for war purposes, which is of a comparatively harmless
nature when ignited under any other conditions than those in which it is to be
employed, which is cheaper than ordinary powder, and which, on ignition,
will evolve much less of the obnoxious vapours that are produced by the
ignition of the ordinary powder. For this purpose about 75 parts by weigh
of saltpetre are mixed with about 18.75 parts by weight of charcoal, and
about 6.25 parts by weight of flowers of sulphur, to form 100 parts of gun-
powder. The charcoal is by preference prepared in the following manner :-
Pieces of birchwood are first ignited, and are then immediately placed in a
receptacle, which is closed hermetically. The charcoal thus obtained is then
soaked in soda-lye, and is dried upon canvass strainers; it is then reduced to
a powder, and is mixed or incorporated in a moist state with the other ingre-
dients in about the proportions above mentioned. The mass thus produced.may
then be treated in any known manner for converting it into a granular, pul-
verulent, or solid form. This powder when ignited in an unconfined space burns
quietly and slowly without any explosive action, but if ignited in an enclosed
space it exerts as great an exploding force as an equal volume of ordinary
powder, and as its specific gravity is considerably less than that of such powder,
it is of course less expensive; it will never ignite through pressure or friction,
and it is therefore less dangerous than ordinary powder, and as the proportion
of sulphur employed is much less than in the latter, it follows that propor-
tionately less noxious vapours will be generated by its explosion, which is of
great importance in mining operations.
Having now described the nature of this Invention, and the manner in which

page_text: it is to be performed, what I claim is the peculiar composition of and mode of
preparing gunpowder for mining and war purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said 'August Klein, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
AUGUST KLEIN. (LS.)