They are composed of two distinct parts, the cravat which contains the priming, and the tube that enters into the touch hole. Small pieces of well dried reeds or of quills, a little less than the size of the vent of the piece, are preferred. They are made thus. The reeds are cut into pieces three inches in length, square at one end and diagonally at the other, and are passed through a caliber two and one-third lines in diameter, (the diameter of the vent being two and one-fourth lines;) they are then rubbed clean in the inside by passing a small file several times through them, that removes the inner skin. Having prepared the reeds, they are filled, and also quills, or other cases, with the composition hereafter mentioned, made sufficiently thin to enter them. This may be done with the most facility by placing the cases side by side, with the square end up, in a tin or wooden box five inches deep; the composition is put into this, and made to descend into the cases, by knocking the box on the table. When they are full, they are taken out of the box, wiped clean, and laid to dry in the sun or in a warm room; before the composition is entirely dry, a knitting needle is passed from one end to the other, in order that the fire may reach the bore of the piece more rapidly. The match of communication (etoupille) is then fixed. This is done by cutting a notch on each side of the reed, near the end that is cut square, to which two strands of a match, two and a half inches long, are tied with a fibre of hemp.
The tubes are tied up in packets of ten each, to facilitate their distribution in service.
The reeds, or other cases, may also be filled in the following way, viz: Take twine made of the strands of cotton thread, and cut into pieces ten inches long; fold each of these into two lengths, and pass them through the reed from one end to the other by means of a loop of very fine thread. The two inches are covered with some of the composition made thick.
Composition of Priming Tubes.
| Parts of, | Meal-powder, | Saltpetre, | Sulphur, | Charcoal. | |
| Usual composition, | 12 | 8 | 2 | 3 | |
| Very quick, | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Particular | } | 0 | 13 | 3½ | 4½ |
| composition, | } | 0 | 4 | ½ | ½ |
The composition is to be moistened with a solution of camphor, &c. in brandy. To every pint add one ounce of gum arabic, and half an ounce of camphor. Gum water retards the combustion of the match.
Fifteen pounds of this composition will make ten thousand tubes.
M. Cadet, (Archives des Découvertes, i, p. 412) has connected with the match a preparation of chlorate of potassa, which is inflamed by sulphuric acid.
We have already spoken of the use of chlorate, formerly called hyper-oxymuriate, of potassa, in this way. See [chlorate of potassa.]