The following are the results of my analyses, conducted by the first described method:

100 grains afford, ofNitre.Charcoal.Sulphur.Water.
Waltham Abbey74·514·410·01·1
Hall, Dartford76·214·09·00·5loss 0·3
Pigou and Wilks77·413·58·50·6
Curtis and Harvey76·712·59·01·1loss 0·7
Battle Gunpowder77·013·58·00·8loss 0·7

It is probable, for reasons already assigned, that the proportions mixed by the manufacturers may differ slightly from the above.

The English sporting gunpowders have long been an object of desire and emulation in France. Their great superiority for fowling pieces over the product of the French national manufactories, is indisputable. Unwilling to ascribe this superiority to any genuine cause, M. Vergnaud, captain of French artillery, in a little work on fulminating powders lately published, asserts positively, that the English manufacturers of ‘poudre de chasse’ are guilty of the ‘charlatanisme’ of mixing fulminating mercury with it. To determine what truth was in this allegation, with regard at least to the above five celebrated gunpowders, I made the following experiments:

One grain of fulminating mercury, in crystalline particles, was mixed in water with 200 grains of the Waltham Abbey gunpowder, and the mixture was digested over a lamp with a very little muriatic acid. The filtered liquid gave manifest indications of the corrosive sublimate, into which fulminating mercury is instantly convertible by muriatic acid; for copper was quicksilvered by it; potash caused a white cloud in it that became yellow, and sulphuretted hydrogen gas separated a dirty yellow white precipitate of bisulphuret of mercury. When the Waltham Abbey powder was treated alone with dilute muriatic acid, no effect whatever was produced upon the filtered liquid by the sulphuretted hydrogen gas.

200 grains of each of the above sporting gunpowders were treated precisely in the same way, but no trace of mercury was obtained by the severest tests. Since by this process there is no doubt but one 10,000th part of fulminating mercury could be detected, we may conclude that Captain Vergnaud’s charge is groundless. The superiority of our sporting gunpowders is due to the same cause as the superiority of our cotton fabrics—the care of our manufacturers in selecting the best materials, and their skill in combining them.

I shall subjoin here some miscellaneous observations upon gunpowder.

In Bengal, mixing is performed by shutting up the ingredients in barrels, which are turned either by hand or machinery; each containing 50 lbs. weight, or more, of small brass balls. They have ledges on the inside, which occasion the balls and composition to tumble about and mingle together, so that the intermixture of the ingredients, after the process has been gone through, cannot fail to be complete. The operation is continued two or three hours; and I think it would be an improvement in Her Majesty’s system of manufacture if this method of mixing were adopted.

In England two or three pints of water are used for a 42 lb. charge: but the quantity is variable; both the temperature and the humidity of the atmosphere influence it.