IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS."-A com-
munication from abroad by Adolphus Dieckerhoff, of 11, Maximilian
Strasse, Vienna.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st December 1875.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention of improvements in explosive compounds consists in a
mixture of picric acid, nitrate of potash, nitrate of sodium, flour of

page_text: sulphur, and sawdust (of oak or other hard wood), and is manufactured
as follows:- kilogram each of picric acid and nitrate of potash is
dissolved in 36 kilograms of boiling water, 15 kilograms of sawdust are
then taken and impregnated with this solution. The sawdust after
having thoroughly absorbed the liquid is then dried till every vestige
of damp has escaped. To every 10 kilograms of the impregnated
sawdust are then taken 17 kilograms each of nitrate of potash and
nitrate of sodium, and 7%, kilograms of flour of sulphur. These
ingredients are well mixed up with the sawdust and the substance to
which the name of heraklin is given is finished and ready for use.
As all ingredients used in the above process require to be finely
powdered, heraklin when in a finished state is like meal or flour. It
can however either be granulated or made in small sticks or bars, and is
thus easier and handier to use.
The process of granulating or making heraklin in sticks is as
follows: After the sawdust has been impregnated as above described it
is not allowed to dry, but is mixed with the three last ingredients above
mentioned in a perfectly damp state, and is then either pounded for
about an hour in a wooden stamping trough or ground in a mill.
During this process great care must be taken that the dough be kept
sufficiently damp, that is, not be allowed to become anyways dry. The
dough after having been thus pounded or ground is then either
granulated by being passed through sieves or pressed in sticks by means
of a hand press; it is then dried and ready for use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 30th May 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 18, Rue 3
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the

page_text: thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her
special license that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Morgan-Brown, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS," (a communication
to me from abroad by Adolphus Dieckerhoff, of 11, Maximilian Strasse,
Vienna,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Morgan-Brown, 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 William Morgan-Brown, 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 :—
This Invention of improvements in explosive compounds consists in a
mixture of picric acid, nitrate of potash, nitrate of sodium, flour of
sulphur, and sawdust (of oak or other hard wood), and is manufactured
as follows:-, kilogramme each of picric acid and nitrate of potash is
dissolved in 36 kilogrammes of boiling water, 15 kilogrammes of sawdust
are then taken and impregnated with this solution. The sawdust after
having thoroughly absorbed the liquid is then dried till every vestage of
damp has escaped. To every 10 kilogrammes of the impregnated sawdust
are then taken 17, kilogrammes cach of nitrate of potash and nitrate
of sodium and 7 kilogrammes of flour of sulphur. These ingredients
are well mixed up with the sawdust and the substance to which the
name of heraklin is given is finished and ready for use.
As all ingredients used in the above process require to be finely
powdered, heraklin when in a finished state is like meal or flour. It

page_text: WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.S.)