| 921.0 | 290.0 | 64.2 = 54% | 20.2 |
| | | | | |
|Schultze powder, | | | | |
|45 grains | 1052.8 | 305.8 | 52.2 = 42% | 20.6 |
| | | | | |
|E.G. smokeless, | | | | |
|42 grains | 920.2 | 298.4 | 81.4 = 67% | 18.8 |
| | | | | |
|Walsrode, | | | | |
|29 grains | 586.4 | 280.6 | 83.0 = 69% | 19.0 |
|__________________|____________|___________|____________|______________|

Barometer, 760 mm. Thermometer, 30 deg. C. Hydrometer = 65. Wind, S.W.

~Picric Powders.~--The chief of these is _Melinite_, the composition of
which is not known with certainty. It is believed to be melted picric acid
together with gun-cotton dissolved in acetone or ether-alcohol. Walke
gives the following proportions--30 parts of tri-nitro-cellulose dissolved
in 45 parts of ether-alcohol (2 to 1), and 70 parts of fused and
pulverised picric acid. The ether-alcohol mixture is allowed to evaporate
spontaneously, and the resulting cake granulated. The French claim,
however, that the original invention has been so modified and perfected
that the melinite of to-day cannot be recognised in the earlier product.
Melinite has a yellow colour, is almost without crystalline appearance,
and when ignited by a flame or heated wire, it burns with a reddish-yellow
flame, giving off copious volumes of black smoke. Melinite as at present
used is said to be a perfectly safe explosive, both as regards
manufacture, handling, and storage.

_Lyddite_,[A] the picric acid explosive used in the British service, is
supposed to be identical with the original melinite, but its composition
has not been made public.

[Footnote A: Schimose, the Japanese powder, is stated to be identical with
Lyddite and Melinite (_Chem. Centr._, 1906, 1, 1196).]

Picrates are more often used than picric acid itself in powders. One of
the best known is _Brugere's Powder_, which is a mixture of 54 parts of
picrate of ammonia and 45 parts of saltpetre. It is stable and safe to
manufacture. It has been used in the Chassepot rifle with good results,
gives little smoke, and a smal