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THE COMPLETE AND EXTRAORDINARILY THOROUGH SCIENTIFIC REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ASSEMBLED BY THE DUC DE MONTPENSIER, EXAMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF THE USE OF THE NEWLY INVENTED PYROXYLIN OR NITROCELLULOSE, ALSO KNOWN AS GUNCOTTON, AS AN EXPLOSIVE FOR MILITARY PURPOSES AND IN MINING. COMMISSIONED IN 1846, THE YEAR OF THE DISCOVERY OR INVENTION OF A PROCESS OF PREPARATION, AND COMPLETED IN 1847, THIS REPORT - THE DUKE'S OWN COPY - REPRESENTS THE MOST IN-DEPTH ASSESSMENT OF THE DISCOVERY S USE AND APPLICATION AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE DATE. Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid, or to a mixture of nitric acid and another acid, usually either hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, or to another powerful nitrating agent. One of its first major uses was as guncotton, a replacement for gun powder as propellant in firearms. It was also used to replace gunpowder as a low-order explosive in mining and other applications.Interestingly, three chemists including C. F. Schönbein independently and simultaneously uncovered this new material in 1846 and a German chemist from Braunschweig, F. J. Otto, was first to publish the general method using a mixture of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3) for producing this new material where each of the three available alcohol groups (-OH) on the glucose repeating unit is substituted with a nitrate group, -ONO2. Besides a large number of respected, experienced members of the French military and Navy, the commission of the present manuscript report included officials of the highest rank, such as Général Baron Gourgaud, Minister of War, Lieutenant Général Baron Neigre, Director of Directeur of the Service of Gunpowders, Charles-Pierre-Mathieu Combes, head chief of Mines, the President of the Artillery Committee, etc., with some of their proposals, findings and advice in the form of letters here finely copied by the commission's scribe or secretary.Fur to the insufficiencies and the lack of depth apparent in two earlier, foreign reports that had recently been assembled, the French government and military body assembled this commission of their own. There are first attestations with regard to the higher initial velocity of a bullet fired using guncotton, the tiny amount of residue left in the barrel and lack of smoke produced, and the comparatively weaker recoil. Further early tests examine the comparative dynamic forces of both gunpowder and nitrocellulose. Experiments conducted at the Depot Central de l'artillerie detailing the exact weights of the charges used, their sizes, recoil, comparative bullet velocities using both cotton and gunpowder and their residues are analysed in numerous tables, with these experiments then extended to larger artillery devices such as cannons, and with regard to the material s use in mines. The use of a large number of different fibers in the making of nitrocellulose is studied, as well as the effect of different dyes on its combustive qualities, and the actual ignition process. A number of reports relate to experimentation with sulfuric acids of different strengths and formulae, and their production. The investigations are then extended to the explosive s use and application in mining, with the famous French engineer, Chef des mines or Inspector-General of Mines, Charles-Pierre-Mathieu Combes, in charge of the trials, an engineer later honoured by Gustav Eiffel by the inclusion of his name on the list of seventy-two scientists and engineers engraved on the Eiffel Tower in recognition of their contributions. The superbly executed watercolours in the second volume show the results of experiments with Pyroxylin conducted at two different mines, first those at the quarry La Folie at Nanterre. The second and rather extended report concerns further experiments at the so-called America quarries.
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