GUNPOWDER.
Ho-yoh, . • . . CHIN. SandaWa, MatibrU, MALAY.
Krudt pulver, , , DAN. Pro* Por, Buskruid, . • . Dur. . . . . Rus.
Poudre, Fs. Polvora, . SP., PORT.
Schieaspulver, , GER. Krut, ..... SW. %rut, Dam, . . Him Topaika marindu, TAM. Ubat, Ubat badil, MALAY. Bianchi, TEL Guupowder is a compound of sulphur, charcoal, and nitre. The sulphur and charcoal in a state of fine powder are mixed with the saltpetre moist as it comes from the refinexy. This compound, known as green charge, is long and carefully grouud under iron and stone runners. This green charge mixture is then milled into gunpowder under large iron runners, that used for Enfield or Snider for six, and fine sporting powder for twelve hours. It leaves the mill in a state partly of soft cake or mill cake and partly of dust. These are then pressed ihto a hard cake at the rate of 70 tons on the square foot, and by the corning and granulat ing processes it is broken up into the grain, dried and glazed to the form in which it is sold as gun powder.
The gunpowder made in Madras is sun-dried on a black drying terrace, on which, in 1854, the tem perature ranged as under at noon :— Jan., . 130°456° May, . 130°--164° Sept.,. 130°-164° Feb., . 130 -156 June, . 132 -154 Oct., . 136 -150 March, 136 -154 july, . 150 -160 Nov., . 136 -146 April, . 132 -156 Aug., • 120 -150 Dec., , 96 -120 Sir John Davies is of opinion that the art of printing, the composition of gunpowder, and the magnetic compass had their first origin in China.
Gunpowder was known in England in A.D. 1330. A discovery of Augendre, which Dr. Pohl turned his attention to, is an explosive substance com posed of 28 parts of prussiate of potash, 23 of ctuie sug,ar, and 49 of chlorate of potash. This mixture is white, and may be used as gunpowder ; it is lighter than common gunpowder but its strength is greater in the ratio of 167 to '100 for an equal weight of each, and in the ratio of 129 to 100 for equal volumes. Hence only 60 grammes of white powder are necessary to produce the effect of 100 grammes of black, which, moreover, leaves a residue of 68 grammes, while the former only leaves 31f grammes. White gunpowder has further the advantage of not heating the gun so fast as the other, because the temperature of its flame is much lower. It is easier to manufacture, less hygroscopic, less inflammable by percussion, and more economical than black gunpowder. In India the charcoal used for making gunpowder is made from the stalks of the Cajanus Indicus. In China it is made from the Cunninghamia excelsa and C. excelsis. Gunpowder Play is the Laab-ul Barut, firing matchlocks in the air in the East to rejoice.—Davies' China,