{"newspaper_name": "Mobile register and journal.", "edition": "01", "page": "p2", "byline": ""}
{"character_count": 2594, "word_count": 447, "ccnet_language_score": [0.9485999941825867], "ccnet_perplexity": [981.9000244140625], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
CAN SALTPETRE EXPLODE "A Bosto chemist argues this question in he Boston Courier. He says, that by iiself sapetre will not explode at any temperature 10 which Il can be raised By heating

 it redness iron vessels, the purest oxygen pass from it, at first, and after continued action ofhe heat, nitrogen passes of, mixed with the oxygen, leaving at the end of the process nothing but potash. Oxygen alone will support combustion, but will not burn. Nitrogen of itself will not support combus- ton, nor will it burn. No combination of the two will burn. If, however, saltpetre be exposed in a close vessel to very great heat, unless before posture il be perfectly dry, wnich is never the case, il not purposey prepared an explosion will some- times take place, from the burning in the oxygen of hydrogen gas, evolved from the decomposed wa ter. IL is hardly probable he says, that al the fire in this city, this should have been the case.

 The writer then proceeds to inquire whether gunpowder could have been formed in the store oi Crocker & Warren. Gunpowder is mechanical mixture of Saltpetre with charcoal and sulphur The explosion of powder depends upon the rapid combustion of the charcoal in the oxygen given of b, heating the saltpere, the action of the sulphur being, principally, to accelerate the combustion the more intimately the charcoal and saltpetre are mixed the more rapid must be this combustion, and consequently the more violent the explosion. The more pure the charcoal, the better the powder. The purest charcoal is probably that formed of rags ol lInen About fifteen per cent of powder is charcoal but any quantity of charcoal forms with saltpelre an explosive mixture. The question is, if al the fire here the sallpetre alone could have exploded. That is impossible. The next question that arises is, if the bags in which the salipetre was packed could have produced when charred, sufficient coal to the explosion that look place? This the Boston writer holds as at the least, possible, and. consld- ering the circumstances, quite probable. What saltpetre did not enter into combination with the charcoal, would without doubt have been scattered at the time, and in the best possible siate-that ol a red heat-to set fire to the wood work of neigh boring buildings His whole conclusion then is that a bag of sapetre, burned by itself. would not ex- pode; but pile of bags, exposed to such heat as to allow the bags to be charred, would explode with as much violence powder. soon, after the charrng. the heat became sufficient to ignite any portion of it.-LN. Y. Ev. Post.