“60 years after Christian Frederick Schönbein’s 1846 discovery of guncotton, stability in storage of guncotton continued to be a problem. 40 years after Baron von Lenk’s 1863 (Imperial Austrian Establishment) suggested treatment with a sodium carbonate solution, followed by silicate of soda and was found to insufficient to remove residual acid. “On board ship the explosives carried must necessarily be in close proximity magazines. to the crew and the other cargo. A wooden compartment is constructed well away from the boilers, steam-pipes, and all materials that could have an injurious effect. On warships there are, of course, regular magazines forming part of the design of the vessel. There have been a number of cases in which ships have been destroyed by the spontaneous ignition of the smokeless powder on board, and since the Jéna catastrophe in 1907 practically all warships have had their magazines kept cold by means of refrigerating plant. “One of the most serious dangers to be guarded against in the storage of explosives is spontaneous ignition. Fires due to the ignition of deteriorated smokeless powders have been fairly numerous. Some of those that have occurred on board warships have been very disastrous. In September, 1905, the Japanese battleship Mikeasa was destroyed in this manner in Sasebo harbour, and 599 lives were lost. The Brazilian warship Aquidaban sank in the port of Jacare, Rio de Janeiro, in January, 1906, with the loss of 213 lives. The French battleship Jéna blew up in March, 1907, in Toulon harbour, killing 114 men. Another Japanese ship, the Matsuhima was lost off the Pescadores in March, 1908, together with 141 lives, apparently in consequence of the spontaneous ignition of the cordite on board. The French battleship Liberté was entirely destroyed in Toulon harbour in September, 1911, and 204 men were killed, 136 injured severely, and 48 slightly. In 1915 the Italian warship Begiedetto Brin was destroyed apparently through the same cause. These catastrophes are only some of the most serious. In addition there have been very many other cases of ignition, which, however, have fortunately not extended to the whole of the contents of the magazine, and consequently the damage has not been so serious. There have also been many cases of spontaneous ignition in magazines on land: in some cases the magazines have been entirely destroyed, together with surrounding objects; in other cases the ignition has not spread, and the damage has been trifling. A study of these cases leads to important conclusions as to the precautions to be taken to prevent a spontaneous ignition of smokeless powder leading to a destructive explosion. The total destruction of the Jéna was due to the spread of the flames from a magazine containing smokeless powder (Poudre B), which had ignited spontaneously, to one containing black powder, which then exploded. The loss of the Matsuhima was apparently due to the same cause, and explosions of land magazines have in some instances been brought about in the same way, as, for instance, that of Batuco in Chile in March, 1908. Gelatinized smokeless powders themselves hardly ever explode unless very strongly confined, and the larger sizes, which are used for. ordnance, will only burn, however fierce the heat may be. The first deduction is therefore that smokeless powders should be stored quite separately from black powder and all other explosives that are liable to explode when ignited. Gunpowder is no longer used for the propulsive charges of naval guns, so that no ships can in future be destroyed in exactly the same way as the Jéna and the Matushima were. The explosion on the Liberté was, however, much more violent, and men were killed several kilometres away by flying debris. There can be no doubt that this was due to the intense conflagration of the smokeless powder having caused the detonation of the high explosive shell filled with Matinite (picric acid). Unfortunately it is not always possible on board ship to keep the shell very far away from the powder magazines, and consequently reliance must be placed on other precautions-refrigerating the magazines and thorough periodical inspection of the powder.” ---------------------------- [I rang up my good friend Hudson Maxim to ask his advise on neutralizers in the manufacture of NC. He was kind enough to point out that although his partner and co-inventor of "Hudson-Schüpphaus Powder" Robert C. Schüpphaus in generally credited with the idea of using urea as a neutralizing agent, (USP 514838 of 1894) its use was first suggested by GT Hase in "Wihl. Horn's Photographische Journal" of 15 January 1855, "A method of correcting the acidity of photographic films."[ ------------------------- The idea of using urea has meet with some opposition, particularly that of Dr. A Dupré, government chemist at Waltham Abbey. I still have my notes from H Maxim's lecture before the Society of Chemical Industry, Dr. E. Mussel in the Chair, Monday, June 14th, 1897. Discussion Dr. A Dupré — ... There was, however, one chemical point dealt with. viz., the use of urea. That was a practice which he had always set his face against ; it was equivalent to adding, say, boracic acid to milk in order to mask want of cleanliness of of honesty in the milk trade. If a powder were well manufactured is ought to stand without urea or any other masking body." Mr. Hudson Maxim, in reply ..... Dr. Dupré had referred to the disadvantages of foreign matter in a powder. For his own part, he did not know of any power that was free from it. His own firm added about 1 per. cent. of urea for safety's sake ; if the materials were pure it did no harm, and if the materials should happen to be impure it made the powder stable. The government put in 5 per cent. of vaselin—a paraffin [in cordite /djh/] which had no action on the other ingredients.