GUN COTTON

[ottawa]

I've seen all the different post on here about making BP and wondered if anyone has tried gun cotton?a chemistry friend of mine once said they tried it during the civil war my thought is that it would be very corrosive as the main part to making it is sulfuric acid anyone else hear of this being used in ML I doubt that it would work in a flinter on its own it would need the pan primed w/BP?

[JCKelly]

If you get guncotton to go off in your gun, that gun will quickly get into a very large number of tiny pieces, likewise your body.

[ottawa]

OUCHHHHH

[northwoodsdave]

Guncotton is a crude nitrocellulose.  It's the basic idea that also creates smokeless powder.

It's much more powerful than black powder (about SIX TIMES more powerful) and thus much more likely to blow up your gun.  It also tends to be quite unstable, which is why you don't find it used any more.

I enjoy knowing the technical aspects of how it is made, but like my body parts too much to actually want to actually make or play with the stuff.

Dave

[Mike R]

there is a story [maybe anecdotal] of how guncotton was discovered: a German/Swiss chemist was messing with nitric acid in his wife's kitchen, spilled some on her good table, and in a panic grabbed a cotton apron to clean up the mess--he then water washed the apron and put it near the stove to dry--it blew up.  in the 1800s alot of folks experimented with guncotton in their muzzleloaders with about universal bad results. it exploded at too high a burn rate [high pressure] and blew up steel meant for BP.  It was the 1st 'smokeless' propellant and was the starting point for development of modern powders [source: The American Rifle, a biography, by Alex Rose].  The US lagged behind europe in development of modern powder and modern firearms in the late 1800s, clinging to single shot BP arms.

[Daryl]

Apparently great for WW1 depth charges - not for muzzleloading guns.

[Mad Monk]

Mike,

And the funny one about guncotton was that its first real use was in the French army.  Used to treat burns and wounds.  Dissolved in alcohol it would be applied to form a film or skin over the burn or wound to protect from infection.  Formed the basic concept for present day products such as "New Skin".  And every few years we see another pharmaceutical company  advertising this new modern medicine product that does the same thing, just not with nitrocellulose dissolved in alcohol.

E. Ogre

[Dphariss]

Guncotton is an HE, detonation velocity of 17000 to 21000 fps, the first that was actually usable. It took about 60 years from the first nitrocellulose being made to tame the basic process enough to make a propellant powder.
Guncotton CANNOT be used in firearms old or new. It would be like using C-4 or TNT.

Dan

[ironsights1]

Back in the early '60s when I was in college, one of the brains in my dorm who was a triple major in chemistry, math, and physics, got tired of being aroused from a sound sleep after others came in from a night on the town. In the chem lab, he concocted what he called "gun cotton".  While they were out getting plowed, he would go in their room,  remove the ceiling light bulb, and stuffed some of this in the light socket.  He would also rig up a bucket of water that would dump on them about the same time as they flipped the light switch. While it wasn't a cure-all, I do remember late evening screams, yells, and threats from those involved!

[doug]

my thought is that it would be very corrosive as the main part to making it is sulfuric acid

      Other than as others have said, its use is more akin to dynamite, guncotton is actually made using nitric acid with some sulfuric acid added to direct where the nitrate ion attaches.

cheers Doug

[hanshi]

Also, over the years I've read anecdotal reports of some really weird accidents that occurred back before guncotton was fully understood.  One of the weirdest (provenance unknown) was of a women bursting into flame due to an article of clothing being make from guncotton.  This is actually believable when you consider more modern idiocy with clothing.