The industrial applications of these results are the basis of English patents 5286 (1898), 18,868 (1898), 18,233 (1898), Luck and Cross (this Journal, 1899, 400, 787).
The structureless guncotton prepared as above described is of quite exceptional character, and entirely distinct from the ordinary fibrous nitrate or the nitrate prepared by precipitation from actual solution in an undiluted solvent.[3] By the process described, the nitrate is obtained at a low cost in the form of a very fine, dense, structureless, white powder of great purity and stability, entirely free from all mechanical impurities. The elimination of these mechanical impurities, and also to a very great extent of coloured compounds contained in the fibrous nitrate, makes the product also useful in the manufacture of celluloids, artificial silk, &c., whilst its very dense form gives it a great advantage over ordinary fibrous guncotton for use in shells and torpedoes, and for the manufacture of gelatinised gunpowders, &c. It can be compressed with ease into hard masses; and experiments are in progress with a view of producing from it, in admixture with 'retaining' ingredients, a military explosive manufactured by means of ordinary black gunpowder machinery and processes.
_Manufacture of sporting powder._--The fact that the fibrous structure of ordinary guncotton or other cellulose nitrate can be completely or partially destroyed by treatment with diluted acetone and without attendant solution, constitutes a process of value for the manufacture of sporting powder having a base of cellulose nitrate of any degree of nitration. The following is a description of the hardening process.
'Soft grains' are manufactured from ordinary guncotton or other cellulose nitrate either wholly or in combination with other ingredients, the process employed being the usual one of revolving in a drum in the damp state and sifting out the grains of suitable size after drying. These grains are then treated with diluted acetone, the degree of dilution being fixed according to the hardness and bulk of the finished grain it is desired to produce (J. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1899, 787). Owing to the wide limits of dilution and corresponding effect, the process allows of the production of either a 'bulk' or a 'condensed' powder.