The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

EARLY HISTORY OF NITRATED CARBOHYDRATES 253
1852. The Austrian government acquired the use of Schonbein's
process (as mentioned above) and the Emperor of Austria
appointed a committee to investigate the use of guncotton for
military purposes. This committee, of which von Lenk was the
leading spirit, continued to function with some interruptions until
1865. In 1853 a factory was erected at Hirtenberg for the manufacture
of guncotton by the method of von Lenk which involved
a more elaborate purification than Schonbein's original process.
The product was washed for 3 weeks, then boiled with dilute
potassium carbonate solution for 15 minutes, washed again for
several days, impregnated with water glass, and finally dried.
Von Lenk constructed 12-pounder guns which were shot with
guncotton cartridges, but they were much damaged by the firing.
About 1860 he tried bronze guns, which were less likely to burst
than iron ones, and with propelling charges of guncotton fired
from them shells which were filled with bursting charges of guncotton.
The shells often burst within the barrel, for the acceleration
produced by the propelling charge of guncotton was much
too sudden and shocking. They could be shot out without exploding
when a propelling charge of black gunpowder was used. On
July 20, 1863, the magazine at Hirtenberg exploded, and the
Austrian government thereupon decided to abandon the use of
guncotton as a propellent explosive. Von Lenk was pennitted to
communicate his process to other nations. In 1862 and 1863, under
the name of Revy, he took out English patents to protect his
method of purification. 87 In 1863 he visited England and described
his process to a committee of the British Association. In the same
year Messrs. Prentice and Co. commenced the manufacture of
guncotton at Stowmarket by von Lenk's process, but an explosion
soon occurred at their establislnnent. In 1865 a guncotton
magazine at Steinfelder Heath, near Vienna, exploded, and on
October 11 of that year the manufacture of guncotton in Austria
was officially forbidden.
1862. Tonkin's English patent 88 deserves our notice because
it mentions the pulping of guncotton—and it was the pulping of
guncotton, introduced later by Abel, which remedied in large
measure the difficulties of stability which had given guncotton
a bad repute and brought it back again to the favorable cons'?
Brit. Pats. 1090 (1862), 2720 (1863).
88 Brit. Pat. 320 (1862); MacDonald, op. tit., p. 44.