23[8], 527-579, contains valuable information on this subject.]

Besides the nitrate, A. Luck[A] has proposed to use other esters of
cellulose, such as the acetate, benzoate, or butyrate. It is found that
cellulose acetate forms with nitro-glycerine a gelatinous body without
requiring the addition of a solvent. A sporting powder is proposed
composed of 75 parts of cellulose nitrate (13 per cent. N.) mixed with 13
parts of cellulose acetate.

[Footnote A: Eng. Pat. 24,662, 22nd November 1898.]

The discovery of gun-cotton is generally attributed to Schönbein (1846),
but Braconnot (in 1832) had previously nitrated starch, and six years
later Pelouse prepared nitro-cotton and various other nitro bodies, and
Dumas nitrated paper, but Schönbein was apparently the first chemist to
use a mixture of strong nitric and sulphuric acids. Many chemists, such as
Piobert in France, Morin in Russia, and Abel in England, studied the
subject; but it was in Austria, under the auspices of Baron Von Lenk, that
the greatest progress was made. Lenk used cotton in the form of yarn, made
up into hanks, which he first washed in a solution of potash, and then
with water, and after drying dipped them in the acids. The acid mixture
used consisted of 3 parts by weight of sulphuric to 1 part of nitric acid,
and were prepared some time before use. The cotton was dipped one skein at
a time, stirred for a few minutes, pressed out, steeped, and excess of
acid removed by washing with water, then with dilute potash, and finally
with water. Von Lenk's process was used in England at Faversham (Messrs
Hall's Works), but was given up on account of an explosion (1847).

Sir Frederick Abel, working at Stowmarket and Waltham Abbey, introduced
several very important improvements into the process, the chief among