_Cordite_ (nitro-glycerine, gun cotton, and mineral jelly or oil), British patent No. 5,614, of 1889; United States patent No. 409,549, August 20, 1889. _Indurite_ (gun cotton and nitro-benzene, indurated), United States patent, No. 489,684, January 10, 1893; British patent, No. 580, of 1893. In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all others. These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or nitro-glycerine, or both, made up into a plastic, coherent, and homogeneous compound of a gluey nature, and fashioned into horn-like sticks or rods by being forced under pressure through a die plate having small holes, through which the plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical shape. Prominent among those who have contributed to this art are the names of Turpin, Abel and Dewar, Nobel, Maxim, Munroe, Du Pont, Bernadou and others. In the recent years of the Nineteenth Century great activity has been manifest in this field of invention. In the United States more than 600 different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger portion of them being for nitro-compounds, which partake in a greater or less degree of the qualities of gun cotton or nitro-glycerine. The influence exerted by them has been incalculable. Subtile as is the force imprisoned in inter-atomic relation, it has been the power behind the boom of the cannon; it has lent itself to the driving of great tunnels through the solid rock; it has lifted the coal and ore from the solid embrace of the mountain, and the building stone from its sleep in the quarry; it has opened up channels to the sea, canals on land, and in both war and peace has been one of the great agencies of civilization. CHAPTER XXXI. TEXTILES. SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY-- ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON’S MULE SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN KAY’S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY’S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT’S POWER LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON’S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW’S CARPET LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH.