Patent gunpowder

Patent Gunpowder. Smokeless powder based on Nitrolignin, manufd in the 1870 s at Clyn-Ceiriog, Wales. The expin of the ship Great Queensland in 1876 was attributed to impurities in this proplnt which caused spontaneous combustion... 

Siutrp de Smithes Patent Gunpowder consists of 2 parte of saltpetre, 2 of potassium chlorate, 1 of potassium ferrocyanide, i of potassium tartrate, and 2 of sulphur. 

Of these, the most successful appeared in 1887 when Alfred Nobel patented a nitrocellulose propellant plasticised with nitroglycerine. Known as a double-base propellant, it is virtually smokeless, with a very high specific impulse as compared to gunpowder. Single-base propellants were developed in 1865 and 1890 by Schultz and Vieille respectively and these took the form of gelatinised nitrocellulose for use in firearms and mortars. 

Note Abel s researches were described more fully in JChemSoc 20, 310-57 505-76(1867) 1867. Borlinetto proposed a mixt of PA (Picric Acid) 10 parts, Na Nitrate 10 K Chlorate 8.5 parts as substitute for Gunpowder (Ref 12, p 7) 1867. Swed inventors J.H. Norrbin C.J. Ohlsson proposed mixtures of pulverized AN with sawdust or charcoal as absorbent for NG (Vol 5 of Encycl, p D1587-R) (Also Ref 1 l,p42) 1867. Swed inventor Bjorkmann patented the mixture called Seranin (Vol 5 of Encycl, p D1587-R)... 

Bowen patented in 1883 the use of carbonized and pulverized lignite in lieu of charcoal in gunpowders intended for use in cannon. The same inventor patented in 1886 the use of charcoal obtained by carbonization of corn or other cereals Ref Dariiel(l902),80... 

Imagine a machinegun, powered by steam, gasoline or electricity, no gunpowder, and silenti T can t see why it was never used, since 1837 prototype worked and a steam-powered model was patented in The toy models shoitfn here obviously worked. 

The process of manufacture now about to be described is the outcome of a long series of improvements which have been made at intervals upon the methods originally adopted by Alfred Nobel, the pioneer in the commercial production of this substance. The nitrator-separator in its present form was first used at Waltham Abbey in the Royal Gunpowder Factory, and is the subject of the British Patent 15,983 of 1901, taken out by Colonel Sir Frederic L. Nathan, R.A., Mr J. M. Thomson, F.I.C., and Mr Wm. Rintoul, F.I.C. 

The process now coming into general use for gun-cotton manufacture is tin. result of important improvements devised by Messrs J. M. and W. T. Thomsen of the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey (British Patent, 8,278, 190.3 D.R. Patent, 172,499, 1904). The following description is taken largely from tint paper by Colonel Sir F. L. Nathan in the Journal oj the Society of Chemical Industry, 27th February 1909. To the Council of the Society and to Sir Frederic Nathan my best thanks are due for their kind permission to use the accompanying illustrations. 

One of the earliest attempts to make commercial use of starch nitrate was advanced by Davey, who, in 1863, obtained a British patent for improvements in the manufacture of gunpowder and explosive compounds. His use of mixed acids in the proportion of 1 of nitric acid to 3 of sulfuric acid should have been fairly satisfactory, but he boiled the slurry Whatever resulted could hardly have contributed to the propellants of the day. 

Perhaps the first of the numerous patents for mixtures of starch nitrate with oxidants, and the like, was assigned to W. Schiickher in 1889 for the production of a smokeless gunpowder. His mix included ammonium, barium, potassium, sodium and starch nitrates, together with potassium chlorate, picric acid salts, nitronaphthalene, and carbon. The starch nitrate used was probably defective in stability. 

Cordite, the smokeless powder adopted by the British Government, is the patent of the late Sir F.A. Abel and Sir James Dewar, and is somewhat similar to blasting gelatine. It is chiefly manufactured at the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey, but also at two or three private factories, including those of the National Explosives Company Limited, the New Explosives Company Limited, the Cotton-Powder Company Limited, Messrs Kynock s, c. As first manufactured it consisted of gun-cotton 37 per cent., nitro-glycerine 58 per cent., and vaseline 5 per cent., but the modified cordite now made consists of 65 per cent, gun-cotton, 30 per cent, of nitro-glycerine, and 5 per cent, of vaseline. The gun-cotton used is composed chiefly of the... 

C. F. Schdnbein, Improvement in preparation of eotton-wool and other substances as substitutes for gunpowder, US-patent 1846, US 00004874 A 18461205. 

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