IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE AND FULMINATING POWDERS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle and John
Casthelaz, Chemists, residing the first at No. 57, Rue de la Seine, the
second at Rue St. Croix de la Bretonnerie, in the Empire of France, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE AND
FULMINATING POWDERS."
Sealed the 31st March 1868, and dated the 5th December 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Paul Gustave Louis
Gabriel Designolle and John Casthelaz at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th December 1867.
We, PAUL GUSTAVE LOUIS GABRIEL DESIGNOLLE and JOHN CASTHELAZ,
Chemists, residing the first at No. 57, Rue de la Seine, the second at Rue
St. Croix de la Bretonnerie, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF EXPLOSIVE
AND FULMINATING POWDERS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention has for its object to apply to the manufacture of powders the
casy combustion of the picrates of potash of the salts formed by picric acid of
the derivatives of picric acid and of their salts, and also of pieric, carbazotic,
or tri-nitrophenic acid and the quantity of useful gas which is developed
during the said combustion; with such powders we can at pleasure increase,

page_text: diminish,and vary their effects and they also have other great advantages over
the ordinary gunpowder.
The Invention consists in associating the substances above indicated with
various oxidizing substances, and in some cases with other suitable substances,
to regulate and vary the effects produced according as the powders are
required for use in mines, for sporting, for. war, or for pyrotechnic purposes
or for the production of fulminating powders or for other applications. In
practice we give the preference to the carbazolate of potash and as the
oxidizing body to the azotate of potash to which we may or may not add
wood charcoal, and sometimes also sulphur; nevertheless other analogous
substances may in some cases be employed by preference.
The experiments which we have made up to the present time have given
the greatest effect with a mixture
This mixture is suitable for blasting and for charging explosive projectiles;
as a sporting powder and for use in small arms generally we employ, according
to the effects desired, mixtures composed of about
12 to 28 parts carbazotate of potash
Fulminating powders we class in two categories; those for quick matches,
explosive projectiles, torpedoes, grenades, and similar uses; those for ful-
minating primings. The distinction is necessary in consequence of the
oxidizing action of the products of the decomposition of chlorate of potash
which it is necessary to overcome in fulminating primings, and this is accom-
plished by means of salts of lead, either the chromate, the chlorate, or the
sulphocyanide or other salt of lead, but by preference the chromate of lead.

page_text: carbazolic acid, such as, for example, the picramates & the isopurpurates, the
salts resulting froin the direct action of certain metals, as antimony, arsenic,
bismuth, iron, zinc, and others upon carbazotic acid.
For pyrotechnic purposes and fireworkswe combine carbazotates of various
bases according to the divers colors and effects to be produced either potash,
soda, ammonia, baryta, strontia, magnesia, manganese, iron, zinc, copper,
cobalt, and others with oxidizing and other substances most suitable to
obtain the desired results and according to the indications herein-before given.
For all the compositions we proceed in making the mixtures by means of
trituration, grinding, pressure, granulation, or by other methods usually
employed in the manufacture of gunpowder,fulminating powder,and fireworks.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle and John Casthelaz
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th June 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PAUL
GUSTAVE LOUIS GABRIEL DESIGNOLLE and JOHN CASTIELAZ, Chemists, residing
the first at No. 57, Rue de la Seine, the second at Rue St. Croix de la
Bretonnerie, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle and John Casthelaz, Her special
licence, that we, the said Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle and Jolin
Castelaz, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle and John Casthelaz, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term thercinexpressed,
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 AND FUL-
MINATING POWDERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that wc, the said
Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle, and John Casthelaz, 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

page_text: describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what mannor
the same was to be performed, and canse 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 Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle
and Jolin Castlelaz, 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:-
Our Invention has for its object to apply to the manufacture of powders
the easy combustion of the picrates of potash, of the salts formed by picric
acid, of the derivatives of picric acid and of their salts, and also of picric,
carbazotic, or tri-nitrophenic acid, and the quantity of useful gas which is
developed during the said combustion. With such powders we can at pleasure
increase, diminish, and vary their effects, and they also have other great
advantages over the ordinary gunpowder.
The Invention cousists in associating the substances above indicated with
various oxidizing substances, and in some cases with other suitable substances,
to regulate and vary the effects produced according as the powders are required
for use in mines, for sporting, for war, or for pyrotechnic purposes, or for the
production of fulminating powders, or for other applications. In practice we
give the preference to the carbazotate of potash, and as the oxidizing body to
the azotate of potash to which we may or may not add wood charcoal and
sometimes also sulphur; nevertheless other analogous substances may in some
cases be employed by preference.
The experiments which we have made up to the present time have given
the greatest effect with a mixture
An
0 This mixture is suitable for blasting and for charging explosive projectiles; as
a sporting powder and for use in small arms generally we employ, according
to the effects desired, mixtures composed of about
12 to 28 parts carbazotate of potash,

page_text: 1.00
These powders are manufactured in a manner similar to that in which
gunpowder is now made; the materials areground together, they are subjected
to heavy pressure in an hydraulic press, and they are afterwards grained; the
grains may be surfaced with plumbago. These powders have the following
advantages over the gunpowders now in use:-They do not produce in their
combustion acid fumes injurious to fire-arms; they produce scarcely any
smoke or fouling; they are more economical in consequence of a smaller
quantity being required to produco a given effect; weight for weight the new
powders may be made of six or eight times the strength of common gunpowder;
they impart greater initial velocity to a projectile without increased strain on
the gun; they are less subject to injury by damp in consequence of the small
solubility of picrate of potash; they may be exposed without injury or risk to
a higher heat; they do not inflame until the temperature exceeds 250° to 300°
degrees Centigrade, whereas ordinary gunpowder melts when the temperature
exceeds 120 degrees from the sulphur it contains.
Fulminating powders we class in two categories; those for quick matches,
explosive projectiles, torpedoes, grenades, and similar uses; those for fulmi-
nating primings. The distinction is necessary in consequence of the oxidizing
action of the products of the decomposition of chlorate of potash, which it is
necessary to overcome in fulminating primings; and this is accomplished by
means of salts of lead, either the chromate, the chlorate, or the sulphocyanide
or other salt of lead, but by preference the chromate of lead.
The fulminating powders of the first category can, as may be required, be
composed of about
nouts of carbazotate of notach

page_text: Chromate of lead and charcoal may be added to this composition. To all
these fulminates powdered glass mayadvantageously beadded in the proportion
of from 5 to 10 per cent. In manufacturing fulminates the powdered
ingredients should be ground together in a moist state (say with 25 to 30 per
cent. of water) and then carefully dried. These fulminates have over the
fulminate of mercury the following advantages:-There is less danger in the
manufacture; there are no mercurial vapours to render the manufacture

page_text: injurious to the workpeople; the materials may be stored separately, and the
fulminate readily produced from them when it is required; there is an
economy in the price; weight for weight they produce better effects.
It should be observed that in all these compositions we can replace the
carbazotates of potash and of lead by salts of which the acids are derivatives
of carbazotic acid, such as, for example, the picramates, the isopurpurates,
the salts resulting from the direct action of certain metals, as antimony,
arsenic, bismuth, iron, zinc, and others upon carbazotic acid.
For pyrotechnic purposes and fireworks we combine carbazotates of various
bases according to the divers colors and effects to be produced, either potash,
soda, ammonia, baryta, strontia, magnesia, manganese, iron, zinc, copper,
cobalt, and others with oxidizing and other substances most suitable to obtain
the desired results, and according to the indications herein-before given.
The following are examples of colored fires manufactured according to our
Invention:-

page_text: them in a revolving barrel together with a number of brass balls, or other
similar means may be resorted to. The compositions are then pressed into
cases of cardboard or other material. If a slow combustion be required a
heavy pressure should be applied. Or the compositions may be moulded into
cylinders or sticks in moulds by hydraulic pressure. The exterior of such
cylinders or sticks should be greased with tallow to make them burn more
regularly; they may then be enclosed in paper, and if desired to protect them
from moisture in capsules of india-rubber. Any suitable priming may be
applied. These colored fires are more brilliant than any heretofore produced;
they are much more intensely colored; they can be made to burn more slowly;
there is much less smoke, and with some of them there is no smoke at all;
they will burn in a vacuum, and can be used under water.
What we claim is the application in the manner described of picrate or
carbazotate of potash, of the salts formed by picric or carbazotic acid, of the
derivatives of this acid, of their salts, and of the acid itself to the manufacture
of powders.
We also claim the several compounds herein-before described.
In witness wherecf, we, the said Paul Gustave Louis Gabriel Designolle
and John Castlelaz, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this First
day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight
P. G. L. G. DESIGNOLLE.
(L.S.)
JOHN CASTHELAZ.
(L.S.)