DEADLY GUNCOTTON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 47, 18 June 1915, Page 5

DEADLY GUNCOTTON.

Efforts are being made to prevent colton from being imported into Germany, as it is an indispensable asset to high explosives. Guncotton is used in enormous quantities for charging torpedoes and mines. Its haso is raw cotton or even cotton waste such as is used in cleaning machinery. This is soaked for several hours in baths of nitric and sulphuric acid, and it is then passed between massive steel rollers. These •x----pel everv trace of acid which has not been absorbed by the cotton. Through continual soakings in water the acidcharged cotton is reduced to a. mass resembling paper pulp, and it is then ready to be moulded into various shapes and'sizes. Discs, cylinders, squares, and tubes of guncotton are produced according to the shape of the implement in which it is to l>e used. Intense shock ot heat explodes guncotton, and its power can be gauged from the fact that it is the force which blows great holes in ships through the agency of mines and torpedoes. The advantages of guncotton for military purposes are that it can stay for any length of time in water without injury; its explosions are unattended by smoke; and it ignites at a temperature half that required to explode gunpower. A peculiar characteristic of guncotton is that a brick of it, when wet, may be placed on <1 bod of hot coals, and as the moisture dries out, the cotton will flake and burn quietly. Tf dry originally, however, the guncotton will explode with terrific force at about 320 degrees of heat.