THE NEW GUNPOWDER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2390, 3 September 1886, Page 2

THE NEW GUNPOWDER.

The gunpowder factory at Chilworth. was visited recently by a Lord Sudely, General Sir M. BiddiM, President of the Ordnanoe Commute}), General G. H. -Fraser and Major E. Bainbridge, members of the Committee, Colonel W. H. Noble, Superintendent of the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Walthani Abbey, Sir F. Abel, Chomist to the War Department, -Mr E Oblville Nepeau, Director of Contracts, Mr E. Kraftmeler, and General E. Harding Steward. The object of the viaifc was to witness'sorae of the processes of manufacturing "brown" or v "cocoa" powder, . inspect the mills and have been erected, with all the' latest improvements, on the site of,the old gunpowder manufactory , for artillery purposes in Great Britain, at least so far as can bo discovered. It is interesting that as England originally .imported both guns andgunpowder from the Dutch, and presently set up a factory at Chilworth, under the auspices ot the grandfather of Evelyn, the diarist, so in this latest timo of artillery development have wo adopted and reproduced at Chilworth the newest I form of gunpowdor discovered, or rather inyonted, in Germany! Within a Bhort interval of time two German specimens of the powder for trial ajfcigland. They were the companies ftiowu as the Retwell Hamburg, and the United Rheiniih whose chief factory is at Bamm, on;the Seig. The powder.was found satisfactory.'foY;heavy . breechloading guns, and adopted for tho service without any opposition- from the Government factories. But. in order that the English trade Bhould benefit as mush as possible, it was arranged that bno of tho English, private factories atjgaat should pjßsess the power of i.ng the new powder bosidos; the tJSHwnnient factory, and that any-firm or company which might be • established should be English, In accordance with theso conditions tho English .Company was formed which is now known as the Chilworth Gunpowder Company.. ■ New works,have been erected uriderj the Buperintendance of Herr Heidemann, the Director-General of the -Weatphalian Company, and they are now atwork producing tho brown powder as well as the. various black powders, for both military and sporting purposes. , The manufacture of the brown powder constitutes a new departure in thohiatory of artillery. Iu the first place a new material has bcon substituted for wood charcoal, .then'-ite proportions of the thr?e traie-honofed ingrsdientn—salpote, sulphur, and chfir* coal-has been largely modified, .and, finally, the_ chemical reaction whioh takes. place on combustion is altogether different from that laid down in the textbooks as derived from experimental trials with blaok powder. One practical result is that the brown powder smoke, and-ihat little quickly disapjSfft; another is that the firiug of the powder, when not in a confined Bpaoe like the chamber of a gun, is extremely slow, and therefore attended with ' comparatively slttjht danger. It may bo interesting to remember that the brown powder waß first brought' under the notice of the English authorities in 1882. In 1883thedotailsof.the manufacture were communicated- td the superindent of the Royal Gunpowder Factory on the sole conditions ofsecrecy, and since then, plant has been' erected at Walthani Abbey, where the ■ Cowder is now made. Manyoxperimenti ave been made iu Italy, as well as other, counfcrios, with the brown powder, but those of the Italians are most interesting to us, because some of them have taken place m tho 110-ton is built on a similar system to*hafc adopted for the heaviest Englishordnance. Theße experiments have been a complete, success and have proved that the brown'., powder as at present manufactured is suit-.;, able for the heaviest artillery yet designed j always provided that the gun? be breechleaders.—Christchurch Press.