Produced by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department, Curtis Weyant, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team NITRO-EXPLOSIVES [Illustration: DANGER BUILDING SHOWING PROTECTING MOUNDS. (_See page 6._)] NITRO-EXPLOSIVES A PRACTICAL TREATISE CONCERNING THE _PROPERTIES, MANUFACTURE, AND ANALYSIS OF NITRATED SUBSTANCES, INCLUDING THE FULMINATES, SMOKELESS POWDERS, AND CELLULOID_ BY P. GERALD SANFORD, F.I.C., F.C.S. _Public Analyst to the Borough of Penzance; late Consulting Chemist to the Cotton Powder Company Limited; and formerly Resident Chemist at the Stowmarket Works of the New Explosives Company Limited, and the Hayle Works of the National Explosive Company Limited_ ~Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged~ PREFACE. In compiling the following treatise, my aim has been to give a brief but thoroughly practical account of the properties, manufacture, and methods of analysis of the various nitro-explosives now so largely used for mining and blasting purposes and as propulsive agents; and it is believed that the account given of the manufacture of nitro-glycerine and of the gelatine dynamites will be found more complete than in any similar work yet published in this country. For many of the facts and figures contained in the chapter on Smokeless Powders I am indebted to (amongst others) the late Mr J.D. Dougall and Messrs A.C. Ponsonby and H.M. Chapman, F.C.S.; and for details with regard to Roburite to Messrs H.A. Krohn and W.J. Orsman, F.I.C. To these gentlemen my cordial thanks are due. Among the authorities which have been consulted in the general preparation of the work may be mentioned the _Journals_ of the Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry, the United States Naval Institute, and the Royal Artillery Institution. I have also referred to several volumes of the periodical publication _Arms and Explosives;_ to various papers by Sir Frederick Abel, Bart., F.R.S., and General Wardell, R.A., on Gun-Cotton; to "Modern Artillery," by Capt. Lloyd, R.N., and A.G. Hadcock, R.A.; to the late Colonel Cundill's "Dictionary of Explosives"; as well as to the works of Messrs Eissler, Berthelot, and others. The illustrations have been prepared chiefly from my own drawings. A few, however, have been taken (by permission) from the pages of _Arms and Explosives_, or from other sources which are acknowledged in the text. P.G.S. THE LABORATORY, 20 CULLUM STREET, E.C. _May 1896._ PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In the preparation of the Second Edition of this work, I have chiefly made use of the current technical journals, especially of the _Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry_. The source of my information has in every case been acknowledged.