The Schultze Powder.—­One of the earliest of the successful powders introduced into this country was Schultze’s powder, the invention of Colonel Schultze, of the Prussian Artillery, and is now manufactured by the Schultze Gunpowder Company Limited, of London.  The composition of this powder, as given in the “Dictionary of Explosives” by the late Colonel Cundall, is as follows:—­

Soluble nitro-lignine 14.83 per cent. 
Insoluble " 23.36 "
Lignine (unconverted) 13.14 "
Nitrates of K and Ba 32.35 "
Paraffin 3.65 "
Matters soluble in alcohol 0.11 "
Moisture 2.56 "

This powder was the first to solve the difficulty of making a smokeless, or nearly smokeless powder which could be used with safety and success in small arms.  Previously, gun-cotton had been tried in various forms, and in nearly every instance disaster to the weapon had followed, owing to the difficulty of taming the combustion to a safe degree.  But about 1866 Colonel Schultze produced, as the result of experiments, a nitrated wood fibre which gave great promise of being more pliable and more easily regulated in its burning than gun-cotton, and this was at once introduced into England, and the Schultze Gunpowder Company Limited was formed to commence its manufacture, which it did in the year 1868.  During the years from its first appearance, Schultze gunpowder has passed through various modifications.  It was first made in a small cubical grain formed by cutting the actual fibre of timber transversely, and then breaking this veneer into cubes.  Later on improvements were introduced, and the wood fibre so produced was crushed to a fine degree, and then reformed into small irregular grains.  Again, an advance was made in the form of the wood fibre used, the fibre being broken down by the action of chemicals under high temperature, and so producing an extremely pure form of woody fibre.  The next improvement was to render the grains of the powder practically waterproof and less affected by the atmospheric influences of moisture and dryness, and the last improvement to the process was that of hardening the grains by means of a solvent of nitro-lignine, so as to do away with the dust that was often formed from the rubbing of the grains during transit.

Minor modifications have from time to time also been made, in order to meet the gradual alteration which has taken place during this long period in the manufacture of sporting guns and cartridge cases to be used with this powder, but through all its evolution this Company has adhered to the first idea of using woody fibre in preference to cotton as the basis of their smokeless powder, as experience has confirmed the original opinion that a powder can be thus made less sensitive to occasional differences in loading, and more satisfactory all round than when made from the cotton base.  The powder has always been regulated so that bulk for bulk it occupies the same measure as the best black powder, and as regards its weight, just one half of that of black.