Staunton Spectator

Another Triumph of Science.

Recent experiments in England have given to the world another triumph of science in the control and management of the dangerous explosive, gunpowder, more wonderful in its result than the use and domestication as it were, of lightning, as applied to the magnetic telegraph.

The announcement that gunpowder has been so put under control that in one minute a barrel of it thrown on burning materials will smother the fire, and in the next instant it can be so rearranged that it will propel a cannon ball with undiminished force, will possibly draw largely upon the credulity of our readers, but it is stated to be the fact. The gunpowder is rendered innocuous, it is claimed, by admixture with glass crushed to an impalpable powder, which can again be rapidly separated from the gunpowder by sifting. Several experiments had been tried with it, such as inserting red hot iron in the prepared powder and throwing it in shovelfuls on a fire, but the London Times of June 23 gives an account of an experiment on a grand scale, which seems to be conclusive as to the value of the invention. The government commission had 338 barrels filled with five tons of powder, mixed with twenty tons of powdered glass, and placed in a condemned martello tower, between Hastings and Rye. A charge of pure gunpowder was put into the barrels and an attempt made to explode them by electricity. The charge of pure gunpowder exploded, blowing out the ends of the barrels and scattering some of the contents; but on entering the tower no farther damage was found, and the gunpowder treated with glass was cooling down.— A pile of firewood was then laid on the loose modern floor near the gunpowder, and as the barrels containing the powder burned, the contents, falling on the fire, smothered it, burning towards the edges, however, like a bad port fire. Two barrels of the mixture were then placed on a pile of blazing fagots, and as they burned and burst, the gunpowder falling on the fire, rather deadened the flames; while in the tower the fire had by this time gradually died out, leaving a great part of the gunpowder unconsumed. The advantages of this process are manifest.