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On the night of the 7th a raid on Gun Hill, an underfeature of Lombard's Kop, silenced at least in Natal two heavy guns which were worrying the garrison. By the rules of the game the pieces were injured beyond repair by the gun-cotton charges which the sappers had fired in the breeches and muzzles; but the heavier gun was removed to Pretoria, where it was made serviceable.
The elements of an explosive compound may be associated chemically as in nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton, which are chemical compounds, being the results of definite reactions.
As a signal in rock lighthouses, where it would be impossible to mount large pieces of apparatus, the use of a gun-cotton rocket has been suggested by Sir Richard Collinson, deputy-master of the Trinity House. A charge of gun-cotton is inclosed in the head of a rocket, which is projected to the height of perhaps 1,000 feet, when the cotton is exploded, and the sound shed in all directions.
It is also soluble in alcohol and ether. One end of the glass tube was, of course, open to the external air; and at the other end of it he placed an aspirator, a contrivance for causing a current of the external air to pass through the tube. He kept this apparatus going for four-and-twenty hours, and then removed the 'dusted' gun-cotton, and dissolved it in alcohol and ether.
'I suppose you couldn't burn the door of the vault with oxy-hydrogen? Simon suggested. 'Yes, I could, said Mr. Galpin; 'and with the brand of steel used here I should get through about this time to-morrow. I could blow the bally vault up with gun-cotton in something under two seconds, but no doubt your Mr. Hugo would go up with it, and then the Yard would be angry. No!
As all of the smokeless powders made of a low grade gun-cotton were found to deteriorate and spoil, experiments were made with gun-cotton of the highest degree of nitration, both alone and in combination with nitro-glycerine.
By the bye talking of Marston if we never return to the Earth, what is to prevent him from following us to the Moon?" "Nothing!" replied Barbican; "he is a faithful friend and a reliable comrade. Besides, what is easier? Is not the Columbiad still at Stony Hill? Cannot gun-cotton be readily manufactured on any occasion? Will not the Moon again pass through the zenith of Florida?
So I light my pipe on the platform deck and go below. Great Jehosh! The first thing I run on to is a couple of torpedoes, about a mile long and two hundred yards thick, loaded up with gun-cotton or pistol-satin enough to blow the ocean up into the sky. And I haven't had my smoke yet!" "That's all right," called Hal, quietly, as the machinist's somewhat shaking voice died out.
Having now explained how the knowledge came to be arrived at that the aforementioned compound of highest grade nitro-glycerine and highest grade gun-cotton would constitute the best basis for a smokeless powder, I will now mention a few of the other conditions necessary to success with its use, without assuming that smokeless powder has yet passed its experimental stage, and is beyond further improvement.
"Yet we found that submarine travel wasn't really dangerous," pursued Captain Jack. "Really, riding around in a submarine craft seems as safe, and twice as pleasant, as cruising in any other kind of yacht." "After we've gotten more used to having hundreds of pounds of gun-cotton on board," smiled Hal, "I don't suppose we'll ever think of the danger in that stuff, either."
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