FULMINATES

or fulminating powders . Of these explosive compounds, there are several species; such as fulminating gold, mercury, platinum, silver; besides the old fusible mixture of nitre, sulphur, and potash. The only kind at all interesting in a manufacturing point of view is the fulminate of mercury, now so extensively used as a priming to the caps of percu ion locks. Having published a paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution for 1831, upon gunpowder (see Gunpowder ), the result of an elaborate suite of experiments, I was soon afterwards requested by the Hon. the Board of Ordnance to make such researches as would enable me to answer, in a satisfactory practical manner, a series of questions upon fulminating powders, subservient to the future introduction of percu ion musquets into the British army. The following is a verbatim copy of my report upon the subject :— To the Secretary of the Board of Ordnance. “ Sir ,—I have the honour of informing you, for the instruction of the Honourable the Master General and the Board of Ordnance, that the researches on fulminating mercury, which I undertook by their desire, have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion, after a numerous, diversified, and somewhat hazardous series of experiments. The following are the questions submitted to me, with their respective answers :—