AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLASTING POWDER FOR MINING AND OTHER OPERATIONS OF A SIMILAR NATURE
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 16,
Castle Street, Holborn, in the City of London, Patent Agent, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLASTING POWDER FOR MINING
AND OTHER OPERATIONS OF A SIMILAR NATURE."-A communication..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard
Loradoux Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 15th December 1858.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LOBADOUX BELLFORD, of 16, Castle Street,
Holborn, in the City of London, Patent Agent, do licreby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN 'BLASTING.
POWDER FOR MINING AND OTHER OPERATIONS OF A SIMILAR NATURE" to be
as follows, vz.:
Treating the powder with a solution of the chlorate of potash, and
maintaining it for use in an unglazed state. To manufacture one
hundred pounds of this improved blasting powder, take nineteen &
half pounds of prepared charcoal, sixty-eight pounds saltpetre, & twelve
and half pounds sulphur; grind these together dry, then press, &
then granulate them; then dissolve chlorate of potash in hot water till:

page_text: the water will hold no more in solution; sprinkle this solution on the
granulated powder, stirring till the powder is moistened to such a
degree that the grains will have a slight tendency to adhere to each
other, but not sufficiently to cause all the grains to resolve into a
mass; then place it in a room, heated to about one hundred degrees 5
Fahrenheit, for about four days.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
AUGUSTE EDOUARD Loradoux Bellford, of 16, Castle Street, Holborn,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing. date the Fifteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three,. in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, Her special licence that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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." AN IMPROVEMENT IN
BLASTING POWDER. FOR MINING AND OTHER OPERATIONS OF A SIMILAR
NATURE," being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad; upon:
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Auguste Edouard
Loradoux Bellford, by an instrument in writing under my hand and:
seal, 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!.
g

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, tho said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, do hereby declare. the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say) :- :
The nature of this Invention consists in treating the powder which
is made with a solution of the chlorate of potash, and maintaining it for
use in an unglazed state.
Common powder for blasting rocks and for the use of fire-arms is
made of a composition of charcoal, nitre, and sulphur. These ingre-
dients have been and are mixed in various quantities, but no powder
composed of such ingredients only is suitable for blasting in mines or
underground, because the gns, which is the result of the combustion
of a powder made of these ingredients, is very heavy, is of a very
suffocating nature, and after one or two blasts are fired in a mine it
takes a long time before the atmosphere of the mine is in a fit state for
the miners to labour at their occupation. The object has been to make
a safe powder to use, and one that will produce a more attenuated and
less suffocating gas when it is ignited. This, 1 believe, has been
accomplished, so that miners, when blasting, will be able to work with
more pleasure, do more work, and have a greater security for health,
than by using any of the common kinds of blasting powder.
To manufacture one hundred pounds of this improved blasting
powder, nineteen and a half pounds of good prepared charcoal (pre-
pared for common powder), sixty-eight pounds of good saltpetre, and
twelve and a half pounds of good sulphur must be taken. These
ingredients are ground up together dry, in any common inachine used
for that purpose, and then pressed' in a common box press, and then
granulated. The processes are not new, nor is the machinery
employed in conducting them, therefore I need not further describe
them. After this powder is in this state (granulated), I take some
good chlorate of potash, and dissolve it in hot water, until the water
will hold no more in solution. This is the strength at which I use
it, and this is also the test of its proper strength for use. I take this
solution and sprinkle it on the said granulated powder, stirring and
mixing the whole well together until the granulated powder is moistened

page_text: to such a degree that the grains will have a slight tendency to adhere
to each other, but not sufficiently to cause all the grains to resolve into
a mass. I then place it in a room, heated to about 100° Fahrenheit,
and keep in this place for about four days, when all the moisture is
found to be expelled and the powder ready and fit for blasting purposes.
It is not glazed in a cylinder like the common gunpowder, and I have
found that it ignites much faster, and exhihits more explosive force.
The chlorate of potash plays the important part of supplying oxygen
to the other ingredients, preventing the setting free of carbonic oxide
gas, producing a more thorough combustion of the powder, the result
being more carbonic acid gas, which is colorless, and without that
strongly offensive odor which belongs to the carbonic oxide, which is
so freely liberated in common powder.
Having thus described my improved powder for blasting in mines, I
claim treating a granulated composition of charcoal, sulphur, and nitre,
in about the quantities mentioned, with a strong solution of the
chlorate of potash, in the manner substantially as described, and em-
ploying the powder so prepared in an unglazed state, for the purposes
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four.