times happened that a flame has caught these raised particles, and it has run from one end of the mill to the other, and blown it up. That, then, is on account of the affinity which the cotton has for the oxygen; but suppose I set fire to this piece of cotton, which is rolled up tightly, it does not go on burning, because I have limited the supply of oxygen, and the inside is prevented from having access to the oxygen, just as it was in the case of the lead by the oxide. But here is some cotton which has been imbued with oxygen in a certain manner. I need not trouble you now with the way it is prepared; it is called gun-cotton.[1] See how that burns [setting fire to a piece]; it is very different from the other, because the oxygen that must be present in its proper amount is put there beforehand. And I have here some pieces of paper which are prepared like the gun-cotton [2], and imbued with bodies containing oxygen. Here is some which has been soaked in nitrate of strontia—you will see the beautiful red colour of its flame; and here is another which I think contains baryta, which gives that fine green light; and I have here
- ↑ Gun-Cotton is made by immersing cotton-wool in a mixture of sulphuric acid and the strongest nitric acid, or of sulphuric acid and nitrate of potash.
- ↑ Paper Prepared like Gun-Cotton.—It should be bibulous paper, and must be soaked for ten minutes in a mixture of ten parts by measure of oil of vitriol with five parts of strong fuming nitric acid. The paper must afterwards be thoroughly washed with warm distilled water, and then carefully dried at a gentle heat. The paper is then saturated with chlorate of strontia, or chlorate of baryta, or nitrate of copper, by immersion in a warm solution of these salts. (See Chemical News, Vol. I., page 36.)
