Topic: To render Gunpowder Incombustible and Combustible at pleasure.

Retrieved: 01/17/2015
Last Post: 12/26/2008

For Your Entertainment:

Whilst in pursuit of the time period for the transition from Powder Kegs to Powder Tins I came across this amazing bit of information. I leave all experimentation up to the indiscretion of the readers, however should this prove to be effective it could clearly change the so called "hazardous" issues surrounding shipment and storage of black powder! I hope our esteemed colleagues can comment on this.

found here: http://mspong.org/cyclopedia/misc.html

------------

To render Gunpowder Incombustible and Combustible at pleasure.

It has been recently announced that a plan has been discovered by which gunpowder may be rendered non-explosive at pleasure, and afterwards restored to its former condition of combustibility. This remarkable discovery was lately announced to have been made in England, but it seemed so improbable that little attention was paid to it. By experiments made during October of this your (1865), at Jersey City, New Jersey, under the charge of Mr. Handel Cossham, one of the party of English railway capitalists accompanying Sir Morton Peto to this country, the matter has been clearly demonstrated to be possible. At this experiment, common gunpowder was first exploded in the ordinary manner.

Ground glass was then mixed with it, in proportion of two parts of gunpowder to one of ground glass. This mixture then refused to explode under the stimulation of red-hot pokers, matches, fuses, and lighted paper. It took fire and burned slowly, but it would not explode. After these tests the remains of the same powder were sifted, and the glass cleared from it, when, at the slightest touch of a match, the whole compound went off at a flash. But the most remarkable of the experiments was the placing of a four-pound keg of prepared gunpowder on the top of a small portable furnace, in full process of ignition. Under ordinary circumstances, such an attempt would have produced a terrible explosion; but here in a very few minutes it was seen to be perfectly harmless. The hoops of the keg soon fell apart and the powder dropped in the fire, almost extinguishing it.

The addition of ground glass has no chemical effect, but it acts mechanically. The glass separates the grains of powder, and prevents continuous combustion. Each grain is consumed by itself, and does not communicate sufficient force to its neighbor to render the latter dangerous. Mixed in heavier proportions, the gunpowder will scarcely burn; and by uniting four parts of ground glass with one of gunpowder, the latter is rendered as incombustible as a stone.

The importance of this discovery can scarcely be estimated. It is one of the greatest safeguards of human life ever discovered. It will render the powder magazine harmless, and prevent those frequent and terrible events resulting in the loss of life, which have sent misery and woe through many communities. This discovery was made by Mr. James Gale, of Plymouth, England, a blind man, who, in happier days, ere vision was denied him, had been extensively engaged in scientific pursuits.

Could this have been a scam, designed to fleece would-be investors via sleight-of-hand? If it is actually effective, I hazard a guess that the ground glass could "sift" to the bottom of a container, and removing it might prove problematic...

Dutch Bill
December 18, 2008

I will go at this with more than one message.

According to a book published on the life of Lammot du Pont.

Lammot du Pont visited Europe as the Civil War was starting. He went first to England to line up a very large shipment of saltpeter (potassium nitrate). He bought just about every available pound of it to be shipped to du Pont here in the U.S. He bought all that English powder makers did not need at the time and they were in the midst of the Crimean War.

What I thought was so funny in this was that he purchased in excess of a million pounds of saltpeter. So figure out howe much England was using in their war. Then you have the tale of a whole bunch of people in India running around this one area collecting little crystals of it that formed on the surface of the ground. I had long considered the Encyclopedia Britanica version nonsense. In India, and elsewhere, potassium nitrate was a manufactured chemical. Made using manure piles. It and a host of chemicals were long known as manure salts.

But I digress there.

According to the book. Lammot du Pont saw tin powder cans while in Europe and brought several empty examples back to the U.S. Then had them duplicated.

If you visit the original du Pont powder works near Wilmington, DE they have a restored shop where wooden kegs were made.

One of the things about the wooden kegs was that the wood used had to be dried and seasoned for a good bit of time. So when business would suddenly pick up, as in wartime, there would be a shortage of wood suitable for powder kegs.

When they made some kegs using wood not properly aged the powder in the kegs suffered as a result.

The conversion from wooden kegs to tin cans, of varying sizes, it cured the problem of wooden keg supply versus demand.

Now for a break and then on to the rest of your posting.

Dutch Bill
December 18, 2008

On to the ground glass topic.

Remember that the cobustion of black powder requires heat being put into the "system" before you get enough heat out of the "system" to support additional powder combustion.

Potassium nitrate melts at 333 C. It "decomposes" at 400 C. When it "decomposes" it releases oxygen that would then support combustion. So you must "pump" heat into the "system" to first melt the potassium nitrate and then pump in more heat to get it to decompose and release oxygen.

This is why there is such a great difference in the combustion rate of black powder in the open versus combustion rates in closed tubes. When the powder is first ignited and while it is burning any heat lost to the surroundings serves to slow the combustion process (reactions).

In these schemes to make black powder "incombustible" the added material acts as a heat sink. In heating the glass particles you are taking heat away from any powder ignition and combustion. So while you might get ignition of the powder the foreign material will rob the powder of heat. Enough that it simply self-extinguishes. If you can keep the potassium nitrate from reaching its decomposition temperature you will have no powder combustion.

There were a number of these schemes at the time. One called for little glass beads.

The ground glass or glass beads had to be of such a size that they could easily and quickly be separated from the powder via screens. So the ground glass, etc., would be sized either a bit larger than the largest powder grains in the mass or smaller. To facilitate rapid screening to make the powder usefull again.

I recall seeing one where they used beach sand screened to a specific size. Used to allow the shipment of small test samples of powder with little danger.

A little more perspective on this.

Du Pont was forced to construct special box cars to ship powder via the railroads in the latter-half of the 1800s. Railroads were hated by the country folk. The country folk thought it great sport to shoot at passing railway cars. You must agree that a box car full of black powder would make a special target. The box cars were lined with additional layers of wood to slow and cool bullets fired at the cars.

So the idea of somehow making the powder almost incombustible had merit in that time period.

I might add that when Elephant brand black powder was imported from Brazil the steel cargo containers used to ship it had an additional lining of several inches of wood.

The description given of the effect of the ground glass in with the grains of powder is not 100% accurate. They ignored this thing about heat loss with black powder and its effect on ignition and combustion of the powder.

Dutch Bill
December 18, 2008

You said it when you commented about snake oil. This thing with the glass was probably one of the few straight ones from that time period. You ought to see some of the patents relating to modifications of black powder or the then new substitute gunpowders from that period in time.

Like the guy who invented this then great new gunpowder substitute. Kneading talc in with fulminate of mercury to make a paste that was then dried to make a gunpowder substitute. I looked at that one. Talc is closely related to asbestos and most technical grades of talc contain a few percent of asbestos. Then there is the mercury exposure.

Can you imagine how corrosive that would have been in a gun!!

Du Pont had a few classics.

One powder company patented coating black powder grains with powdered aluminum. This increased the strength of the powder in blasting work. An attempt to better compete with dynamite which was pushing black powder out of most of the hard rock blasting work.

So du Pont files for a patent on coating black powder grains with finely powdered aluminum. The idea being that when you spilled black powder in a coal mine you could not see it. If you coated the grains with aluminum powder it made them silver in color so that spilled powder could more easily be seen. So a patent was granted under the idea that this made the black powder safer to use in coal mines. So you had two different powder companies doing the same identical thing under two different patents. The first one left a "window" for du Pont to exploit.

Professor Marvel
December 26, 2008

oh. adding powdered aluminum.

I daresay, it must have increased the strength! I can only imagine the effect in a muzzleloader if an old-timer ran out of Rifle or Musket powder and remembered using "blasting powder" (as an expedient) from 25 or 30 years prior ... .:-(