GUNPOWDER.
When Rollo and James went home it was nearly tea-time, and they found
Jonas just coming from the pasture. They told him of the ill success of
their experiment in charcoal-making, with countenances expressive of
great disappointment and chagrin.
“It is no matter,” said Jonas; “you have had your afternoon’s amusement,
and that’s all you want, isn’t it?”
“No, indeed,” said Rollo; “by no means.”
“Why, what else do you want?” asked Jonas.
“Why, we want some gunpowder,” said James. “We are going to make our
charcoal into gunpowder.”
“You needn’t have made a charcoal bed for that,” said Jonas. “You can
get all the charcoal you want to make gunpowder with, out of the kitchen
fire.”
“The kitchen fire!” said Rollo.
“Yes,” replied Jonas. “You can pick up plenty of little black coals in
the corners.”
“Will they do?” asked James.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “why not?”
“I didn’t know that they were charcoal,” rejoined James.
“Yes,” said Jonas.
“And will you help us make our gunpowder?” asked Rollo.
“Why, it is rather a dangerous business,” said Jonas.
“Why, we will be very careful, you know, Jonas, not to get blown up,”
said Rollo.
“O, I’m not afraid of getting blown up with any gunpowder you can make.
That wasn’t the kind of danger I was thinking of.”
“What danger then?” said Rollo.
“Why, danger of getting the sulphur on your clothes, and smutting your
face with the charcoal.”
“Why, Jonas,” replied Rollo, “if we get the sulphur on our clothes, we
will brush it off again; and, as to the smutting, we won’t touch the
charcoal to our faces.”
“It is very difficult,” replied Jonas, “to have any thing to do with
charcoal, without getting blacked with it. You can hardly look at it
without crocking your face.”
“O Jonas,” said James, “_I_ could, I know.”
“Then, besides,” continued Jonas, “you can’t brush the sulphur off your
clothes. If you once get it on, some of it will stay, and your clothes
will always smell of sulphur whenever you come near a fire. I don’t
think that your mother would be willing that you should have any thing
to do with sulphur and charcoal.”
“I mean to ask her,” said Rollo.
Rollo went in to ask his mother, but he found that tea was ready, and so
he and James went in and took their places at the tea-table. When the
boys proposed their plan of making gunpowder, they found Rollo’s mother,
as Jonas had supposed, quite averse to any such operations. However,
when his father came in and heard their conversation on the subject, he
said that he would take charge of the business, and then his mother
would have no objection.
“Well, sir,” said Rollo, “I’m glad of that; for perhaps Jonas wouldn’t
know how to make it.”
“He can prepare the materials, at any rate,” said his father. “So, after
tea, you may go out and ask him to get three tea-cups, and to put about
three or four tablespoonfuls of sulphur in one, and of saltpetre in
another, and charcoal in another. Only the saltpetre and the charcoal
must be pulverized.”
“Pulverized?” said Rollo; “what do you mean by that?”
“Why, powdered,—that is, pounded up very fine.”
“How shall he pound them?” said Rollo.
“In the iron mortar,” said his mother. “Dorothy will give it to him.”
“And when they are all ready,” continued Rollo’s father, “come and tell
me.”
Accordingly, immediately after tea, Rollo and James went out to give
Jonas the directions about preparing the materials. Dorothy gave Jonas
the mortar. She also brought out three tea-cups, and put them upon the
kitchen table. Jonas picked up from the corner of the fireplace a few
small coals, and put them into the mortar and then, took up the pestle.
“O, more,” said Rollo; “we want more than that.”
“Yes,” said Jonas; “but we must take a little at a time.”
“Why?” asked Rollo.
“Because,” replied Jonas, “if I put much into the mortar at once, I
can’t make it fine. I must only have a little, and then the pestle and
the bottom of the mortar come close together, and so it grinds up the
smallest pieces.”
When Jonas had pounded up the charcoal which he had put in at first, he
poured the black powder out into one of the tea-cups, and then put in
more charcoal, which he powdered as before. He proceeded in this way
until he had filled one of the tea-cups nearly half full. He then washed
out the mortar, and put it down to the fire to dry. Then he took a glass
jar, which Dorothy had brought him from the closet, and which was nearly
full of a substance which looked like salt, and poured some of it into
the mortar.
“Is that the saltpetre?” said Rollo.
“Yes,” replied Jonas.
“It looks like salt,” said Rollo.
“Yes,” rejoined Jonas, “and tastes a little like salt.”
Rollo and James both wanted to taste a little of the saltpetre, and they
did. In the mean time, Jonas had poured some of it into the mortar, and
was grinding it up with his pestle; and, when Rollo asked him where
saltpetre came from, and what it was for, Jonas said he did not know any
thing at all about it, and went on pounding and grinding with his
pestle.
Dorothy now brought out another jar, containing sulphur; and as soon as
Jonas had finished pulverizing his saltpetre, and had put it all into
its cup, he poured out some of the sulphur into the third cup. The jars
and the mortar were now put away, and Jonas got two sheets of
wrapping-paper, and put upon the table, for he said he thought it
probable that they might want some, in trying the powder.
“I expect your father will want a pair of scales, too,” said Jonas.
“What for?” asked Rollo.
“To weigh out the materials,” replied Jonas. “I don’t know what the
proportions are; but I suppose that they must be mixed in right
proportions.”
“What are the right proportions?” asked Rollo.
“I don’t know,” said Jonas, “but I suppose your father will know.”
“Well,” said Rollo, “I’ll go and call him.”
So Rollo went in, and told his father that they were all ready. He found
his father at the library looking at a large book.
“Come, father,” said Rollo.
“Seventy-five parts of saltpetre,” said his father, reading out of his
great book, and appearing not to pay any attention to what Rollo
said,—“seventy-five parts of saltpetre, eleven and a half of sulphur,
and thirteen and a half of charcoal. Seventy-five to eleven, that is,
about seven to one. Say, six times as much saltpetre as of each of the
other two. That will be near enough.”
“Come, father,” said Rollo again; “we’re all ready.”
“Yes,” said his father, “I’ll come.”
Rollo returned into the kitchen, and his father followed him. His mother
came, too, for she wanted to see them make the gunpowder. Jonas asked
Mr. Holiday if he should want a pair of scales.
“No,” said he, “we can guess at the proportions near enough. We can’t
expect to make very good gunpowder.”
“Why not, sir?” said Rollo; “the things are all good that we are going
to make it of.”
“Very likely,” said his father; “but we cannot make them fine
enough,—nor mix them intimately.”
“Why, father,” said Rollo, “Jonas has made them very fine indeed.”
“Yes, I have no doubt that he has pulverized them as well as it can be
done in a mortar. But it is not possible to make them as fine in that
way as they do in the powder-mills. Then, to mix them properly, they
ought to be wet and ground together a long time. We can’t stop to do
that.
“And now, first,” he continued, “I want you all to observe how these
various materials will burn by themselves, and then see how differently
they will burn together.”
Mr. Holiday then took up a coal of fire, and put it upon the shovel; and
he asked Jonas to hold it for him in the fireplace, under the throat of
the chimney, so that the smoke and fumes might not come out into the
room. He then took from the cup which had the sulphur in it, a little of
the sulphur upon the point of his knife, and laid it down gently upon
the coal of fire. It burned with a very small and faint blue flame. It
burned very slowly, and the flame continued for some time; but the flame
was not much bigger than the sulphur itself which caused it.
He then tried the same experiment with the saltpetre. The effect was
very different, though in this case there was scarcely any flame. It
made a little faint flash, accompanied with a slight crackling sound.
Then he tried the charcoal, but it did not appear to burn at all. It lay
in a little black heap upon the burning coal, just as Mr. Holiday put it
on. After a time, however, it began to grow red upon the under side, and
finally became red throughout; and then it could hardly be distinguished
in appearance from the coal which it was lying upon.
“So you see,” said Mr. Holiday, “that these three ingredients are not
very combustible by themselves; at least, they burn very quietly, and
with very little flame. Now, we will mix them together. We want a
tea-spoon Dorothy.”
Dorothy brought a tea-spoon.
“And the mortar. I can mix them better in the mortar.”
So Dorothy brought the mortar, too. Mr. Holiday measured out six
tea-spoonfuls of saltpetre from the cup which contained that ingredient,
and put it into the mortar.
“There must be about six times as much saltpetre as sulphur and
charcoal,” said he. “That is not exact, but it will be near enough, I
presume. Now, I will put in one tea-spoonful of sulphur and one of
charcoal. I suppose, however, I ought to go by the weight, and not by
bulk.”
“What do you mean by that, sir?” said James.
“Why, it ought to be six times as much saltpetre by weight, and not by
measure. It wouldn’t take six tea-spoonfuls of saltpetre to weigh six
times as much as one tea-spoonful of sulphur, I presume; for I should
think saltpetre is much heavier. I suppose saltpetre is heavier than
either sulphur or charcoal. So I will put in two tea-spoonfuls of
sulphur, and two of charcoal, to make up for their lightness.”
“I should think it would be better to weigh them,” said Rollo.
“Yes, it would be rather better, but it would take more time, and we
will see how our gunpowder burns without being exact in the proportions;
and if it does not succeed, then perhaps I will try again, and weigh out
the ingredients, and see if it makes the gunpowder any better.”
While saying this, Mr. Holiday had been gently rubbing and mixing the
powders in the mortar. He said he must rub them gently, for, as the
pestle and mortar were both of iron, if he rubbed hard, he might
possibly set his gunpowder on fire.
“O father,” said Rollo, “I don’t believe it would take fire by just
rubbing in a mortar.”
“No,” said his father, “I don’t think it would, myself; but it might,
possibly. I have heard of powder-mills taking fire by the friction of
the mills in grinding the powder,—though I don’t suppose it would be
possible to set fire to any such powder as we can make, by rubbing it in
a mortar. Still it is well to be on the safe side.”
After Mr. Holiday had mixed the compound sufficiently, he poured it out
of the mortar upon the sheet of brown paper which Jonas had prepared.
“Is that gunpowder?” said Rollo, in a tone of incredulity.
“I think it is somewhat doubtful myself,” replied his father.
“It does not look like gunpowder,” said Rollo’s mother.
This was true. The substance before them was different in its appearance
from gunpowder in two respects. It was not _grained_ like gunpowder, but
was fine and impalpable, like dust. Then it was of a lighter color.
Mixing so much saltpetre, which was white, with the charcoal and
sulphur, prevented its being so dark as common gunpowder. At least, Mr.
Holiday thought that this was the reason, and he suspected that, in some
way or other, he had got too much of the saltpetre in his composition.
At any rate, the powder looked like nothing but a heap of gray dust.
“The proof of the pudding is the taste,” said he; “so we’ll try it.”
He accordingly took up about half a tea-spoonful of the gunpowder, and
put it upon the shovel, and he asked Jonas to hold it in the fireplace,
so that, if it did burn, the smoke might go up chimney. Rollo wanted to
touch it, and his father gave him leave. So he took up a small coal of
fire with the tongs, and touched the top of the little heap. To their
great pleasure and surprise, it blazed up suddenly and violently.
“Yes,” said Rollo, “it’s gunpowder! It’s real gunpowder, I do believe!”
“Let me touch some of it,” said James.
Mr. Holiday put another half tea-spoonful upon the shovel and let James
touch it. It flamed up like real gunpowder, just as before.
“The great peculiarity of gunpowder,” said Mr. Holiday, “is, that it
burns without air. Other combustibles, when shut up in a confined space,
will not burn. If they are set on fire previously, they go out when they
are closely shut up from the air. But gunpowder burns the more violently
the more closely it is shut up. There seems to be something in some of
the ingredients which takes the place of air; so that, when people drill
a hole in a solid rock, and pour gunpowder down to the very bottom of
it, in a place where nothing else would burn, and then ram down pounded
bricks into the top of the hole, so that no air can get in, if they get
fire to the gunpowder, it will burn there more fiercely than any where,
and tear the rock to pieces.”
“How do they get the fire down?” asked Rollo.
“They put a wire in,” replied his father, “before they put in the
bricks; and then when the bricks are pounded in hard, they draw up the
wire, and that leaves a little hole extending down to the powder. Then
they pour fresh powder into the hole, and put shavings on the top, and
then set the shavings on fire, and run away.”
“I should like to see them blow up a rock,” said Rollo.
“We must make an artificial rock for our gunpowder,” replied his father,
“and see if our powder will burst it. I’ll try, if you will go into the
other room, and get the ball of twine out of the drawer.”
While Rollo was gone after the ball of twine, his father took a piece of
strong wrapping-paper, which Jonas got for him, and, bending it around
over his hand in a peculiar manner, he formed it into a conical sort of
cup, into which he poured the gunpowder which he had made. This paper
cup was pointed at the bottom, growing larger and larger upwards. He
then folded over the upper part, so as to enclose the powder completely;
and, when Rollo brought the twine, he began to wind the twine around it,
as if he was going to tie it up. Rollo and James expected that he was
going pretty soon to cut off the string, and tie it; but instead of
that, he went on winding it up like a ball. After he had carried the
string round a number of times, he began to wind it tighter and tighter,
taking care, however, always not to pass the twine over the little tip
or apex of the cone. By this means, in a short time the whole paper was
covered in every part with the twine except the apex, which remained
exposed.
“There,” said he, when he had finished, “I have enclosed the powder now
in this ball, and confined it tight. We can imagine this to be a rock.
The air cannot get at it. If it burns at all, it must burn by means of
its internal composition. Now we will go out and set it on fire. Jonas
must get a short board and a few shavings.”
While Jonas was gone after the board and shavings, Mr. Holiday made a
little more gunpowder in the mortar for priming, as he said. When it was
ready, they went out to the door, where they found Jonas with a board,
and a little basket of shavings.
Mr. Holiday put the board down upon the ground at a little distance from
the door. Then he placed his wound parcel of gunpowder upon the board,
with the tip down. With his penknife he made a little opening into the
gunpowder at the tip, so that a little of it came out upon the board. He
then poured his priming down at the same place, and laid the shavings
carefully upon it. He finally folded up a paper, and lighted it in the
house, and came up cautiously and lighted the shavings. The others all
stood upon the piazza looking on, and Mr. Holiday himself, as soon as he
saw the shavings began to burn, retreated to the same place of security.
The shavings burned slowly for some time. The flame approached nearer
and nearer to the charge; for a minute, the flame seemed to come from
the very apex of the cone, and Rollo had just come to the conclusion
that the powder would not go off, when suddenly there was a flash and a
great puff of smoke, and immediately after a loud explosion. The
children ran to the spot and found that the ball in which the gunpowder
had been enveloped, was torn all to pieces, and the fragments of the
twine were slowly burning.
QUESTIONS.
Why was Rollo particularly sorry that he failed in making the
charcoal? What did Jonas tell him? What dangers did Jonas anticipate
in his making gunpowder? What did his father say to his request?
What preliminary arrangements were made? What is the meaning of
_pulverize_? Of _impalpable_? How did Jonas pulverize the charcoal?
How did Rollo find his father employed, when he went to call him?
What did his father say that the proportions were? Did he attempt to
be exact? Did he suppose that the parts ought to be measured by bulk
or by weight? Which did he think was the heaviest of the materials?
How did he make allowance for this? What was the success of the
experiment? How did their gunpowder differ from real gunpowder in
appearance? In what respect does gunpowder differ from other highly
combustible substances? How did Mr. Holiday confine his gunpowder,
to show whether it had the property of burning without a supply of
air?