The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

EARLY HISTORY OF NITRATED CARBOHYDRATES 249
Association. He did not apply for an English patent in his own
name but communicated his process to John Taylor of Adelphi,
Middlesex, who was granted English patent 11,407, dated October
8, 1846, for "Improvements in the Manufacture of Explosive
Compounds, communicated to me from a certain foreigner residing
abroad." 81 He entered into an agreement for three years
FIGURE 61. Rudolf Bottger (1806-1887). (Courtesy E. Berl.) Professor
at*Frankfort-on-the-Main. Discovered guncotton independently of Schonbein
but somewhat later, in the same year, 1846. He also invented matches,
and made important studies on the poisoning of platinum catalysts.
Reproduced from original in Kekule's portrait album.
with Messrs. John Hall & Sons of Faversham that they should
have the sole right in England to manufacture guncotton by h*is
process and in return should pay him one-third of the net profit
with a minimum of £1000 down and the same each year. The first
factory for the manufacture of guncotton was erected at Faversham.
On July 14, 1847, within less than a year, the factory was
destroyed by an explosion with the loss of twenty-one lives. After
this, Messrs. John Hall & Sons refused to continue the manu-
81 Ibid., pp. 42-44.