Year: 1877




The mode of making gunpowder is
about the same everywhere.
The saltpeter, the charcoal and the sui
phur all must be ground very finely.
Among rude tribes in Asia, as in old
times, the grinding is done by women
and children, who pound the ingredients
with wooden pestles in wooden mortars,
and often finish by blowing up the en-
tire family, house and all. In other
places they pass crank-shaft through
a barrel and fix it in frame. This bar
rel they partly fill with what they wish
to pulverIze, and also with a quantity
of brass or wooden balls. By turning
the crank rapidly the balls and the ma
terial are both rolled around from side
to side, and finally the grinding is eff
fected. Next they mix the three togeth-
er in proper proportions, spreading it
on wooden table, turning it with wood
en- paddles, and rolling it with wooden
rollers then they put it back into the
wooden mortar or tub and pound it
again, any blow, just as likely as not,
being the last they will live to give. If
they and the powder survive this, they
then spread it on cloth IN the sun to
dry, and if it don't blow up before they
can gather it together again. the hus-
bands and fathers of these brave women
and children soon have plenty of pow
der. [ have been told of a lady, brought
up in the East Indies, whose most vivid
remembrance of her early life was the
blowing up of a ''native" family by such
means. But in the modern powder-mills
there are deep, circular troughs of stone
or iron, around and around in which
travel ponderous wheels. Men with
wooden shovels keep the material under
the rollers, where it is thoroughly crush
ed.


When enough of each ingredient is
ready to make batch of powder, they
weigh it-about rs parts of saltpeter,
ID of charcoal and 0of sulphur. These
proportions, however, vary somewhat.
depending upon what the powder is to
be used for, and the strength required.


The welghed-out ingredients must
now be mixed. Usually, the charcoal
and sulphur are put together first in re-
volving barrels, in which are loose zinc,
brass, or copper balls ; and when this is
completed, the saltpeter is added. and
the rolling process is repeated until the
whole is well intermingled. In some
mills the three ingredients are put in
the barrels and mixed in one operation
but this mode is attended with greater
risk.


All this, however, is mere stirring.
The real nsiaing must be done nuder
great pressure.


Now begins the greatest danger. The
stirred-up materials are taken to another
shed, called the incorporating mill,"
where there are more wheels and troughs;
but, instead of men with shovels, there
are wooden and copper scrapers attached
to the machinery, that follow the wheels
and keep the mixture in place. The in
gradients are placed in the trough, the
wheels started, and the men lock the
doors and 60 away, Hour after hour,
around and around in the dark, all alone
rumble these mighty wheels. So long
as the little scrapers attend to their
business, evenly spreading the mixture
three or four inches deep in the bottom
of the trough, all will be well but if
anything goes wrong-puf-6amg =
that is the end of that mill. If the
crushing-wheels and the iron bottom of
the trough should happen to touch, the
chances are they would ''strike fire."
but the cushion of powder between is
supposed to prevent this.-St. Nicholas
for July.