AN IMPROVED EXPLOSIVE COMPOUND OR SAFET BLASTING POWDER
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pedro Nisser, of Minories, in the City of London
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED EXPLOSIVE COMPOUND OR SAFET
BLASTING POWDER."
Sealed the 17th October 1868, and dated the 27th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pedro Nisser at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th April, 1868.
I, PEDRO NISSER, of Minories, in the City of London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED EXPLOSIVE
COMPOUND OR SAFETY BLASTING POWDER," to be as follows:-
'This Invention consists in combining together the following ingredients
matters, or substances in the manufacture of blasting powder, the said
improved powder being composed of two distinct compounds of two or
more ingredients, the said compounds whilst they are kept separate from
each other are quite inexplosive and therefore perfectly harmless until
they are mixed together for use.
The following are examples of the ingredients and proportions I

page_text: To make compound, say, No. 1; I use either nitrate of potassa or
nitrate of soda and mix them with either chlorate or perchlorate of
potassa or both in proportions varying from 5 to 35 per cent. of each of
these salts according to the required strength of the powder; these salts
should be pulverized and thoroughly mixed together.
To make compound No. 2, I use saccharum album, id est, white lump
sugar of the purest quality, or the loaf sugar of commerce pulverized,
and mix therewith sublimate of sulphor in proportions varying from 25
to 35 per cent. of the sugar to the sulphur, and to these I add from 8
to 10 per cent. of either vegetable fibre or charcoal, or both according to
the required strength of the powder. The above-mentioned compound
ingredients may be used either in equal parts of each or in proportions
varying from 15 to 25 per cent. less in quantity of the ingredients
mentioned at No. 2 compound, the proportions being determined by the
weight. Blasting powder made of the foregoing compound ingredients
does not ignite by friction or percussion and may be transported with
perfect, safety; the cost of manufacture is also considerably less than
blasting powder as heretofore made.
:
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Pedro Nisser in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PEDRO
NISSER, of Minories, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Pedro Nisser, Her special licence that
I, the said Pedro Nisser, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Pedro Nisser, 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 Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED EXPLOSIVE COMPOUND OR

page_text: SAFETY BLASTING POWDER," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1,
the said Pedro Nisser, 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 In-
vention, 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 Pedro Nisser, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in combining together the following ingredients
matters, or substances in the manufacture of blasting powder, the said
improved powder being composed of two distinct compounds of two or
more ingredients, the said compounds whilst they are kept separate from
each other are quite inexplosive, and therefore perfectly harmless until
they are mixed together for use.
The following are examples of the ingredients and proportions I
propose to use for making different qualities of blasting powder :-
To make compound, say, No. 1, I use either nitrate of pottassa or
nitrate of soda and mix them with either chlorate or perchlorate of
potassa, or both in proportions varying from 5 to 35 per cent. of each of
these salts according to the required strength of the powder; these salts
should be pulverized and thoroughly mixed together.
To make compound No. 2, I use saccharum album, id est, white lump
sugar of the purest quality, or the loaf sugar of commerce pulverized,
and mix therewith sublimate of sulphor in proportions varying from
25 to 35 per cent. of the sugar to the sulphor, and to these I add
from 8 to 10 per cent. of either vegetable fibre or charcoal, or both
according to the required strength of the powder.
The above men-
tioned compound ingredients may be used either in equal parts of
each, or in proportions varying from 15 to 25 per cent. less in quantity
of the ingredients mentioned at No. 2 compound, the proportions being
detirmined by the weight. Blasting powder made of the foregoing
compound ingredients does not ignite by friction or percussion and
may be transported with perfect safety; the cost of manufacture is also
considerably less than blasting powder as heretofore made.

page_text: Aud in order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible,
I now proceed to describe the proportions I have found best adapted
in practice for accomplishing the objects of my said Invention, as
follows-Observing that I propose to make two classes of safety
blasting powder, which for the sake of distinction I shall call No. 1
and No. 2.

page_text: to manufacture the above ingredients into two distinct compounds
I reduce the two salts to a powder, and then mix them together
intimately.
And I would here remark that it is a well known fact that chlorate of
potash when mixed with sulphur, as at present practised in the manu-
facture of certain kinds of matches, will explode upon being subjected to
friction, but by combining the sulphur with other ingredients as above
described under Class 2 explosion will not take place by friction even
though the chlorate and sulphur are combined in a dry state, and I
consider this a very important feature in the manufacture of blasting
powder as it ensures perfect safety in its manufacture, transport, and
storage and admits of chlorate of potash being safely mixed with sulphur
for the production of expansible gases.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my
said Invention for "An Improved Explosive Compound or Safety Blasting
Powder," I would remark in conclusion that what I claim as my Inven-
tion intended to be secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is as follows:-
I claim the combinations of ingredients above mentioned in and for the
manufacture of "An Improved Explosive Compound or Safety Blasting
Powder.
And especially I claim the combination of ingredients as described
with reference to Compound 2, namely, the mixing of sulphur with sugar
wood fibre, charcoal, and mineral coal, to enable sulphur to be safely
mixed with chlorate of potash in the manufacture of blasting powder and
the production of expansible gases as above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pedro Nisser, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight