state has been found to be too
quick, or violent, for propulsive purposes, such as use in firearms; as
under such conditions of confinement it is very likely to detonate and
burst the gun. However, if gun-cotton be dissolved in a suitable
solvent, which is capable of being evaporated out, such as acetone, or
acetate of ethyl, which are very volatile, it becomes, when thus
dissolved and dried, a very hard, horn-like, amorphous substance, which
may be used for a smokeless gunpowder. But this substance taken alone is
very difficult to mould or granulate, and the loss of expensive solvents
must necessarily be quite considerable.

When gun-cotton is reduced to a collodial solid, as above, and used as a
smokeless gunpowder, the grains must be made comparatively small to
insure prompt and certain ignition, and consequently the pressures
developed in the gun are apt to be too great when charges sufficiently
large are used to give desired velocities.

If, however, a compound be made of gun-cotton and nitro-glycerine, in
about equal parts, by means of a volatile solvent or combining agent,
such as one of the before mentioned, and the solvent evaporated out, we
obtain practically a new substance and one which, as regards its
explosive nature, is quite unlike either of its two constituents taken
alone. The nitro-glycerine, furthermore, being itself a solvent of
gun-cotton, much less of the volatile ether is necessary to render the
compound of an amorphous character. Being quite plastic this substance
may be wrought or moulded into any desired size or form of grain.

This simple compound of nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton, or with some
slight modifications, has been found, when properly granulated, to be
the most smokeless powder that has yet been discovered or invented. If
pure chemicals are employed in the manufacture, and the gun-cotton and
nitro-glycerine be made of the highest nitration and best quality, we
have a smokeless powder which will possess the following desirable
qualities:

1st. It is absolutely smokeless, that is, its products of combustion are
entirely gaseous.

2d. Its products of combustion are in no way deleterious or unpleasant.

3d. It is perfectly safe to manufacture, handle and transport. There is
no more danger of its exploding accidentally than there would be of an
explosion of shavings or sawdust; for, unless well confined and set off
with a strong primer, it will not explode at all. In the open its