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Reconsidering Science Learning 1st Edition Eileen
Scanlon Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Eileen Scanlon
ISBN(s): 9780415328302, 0415328306
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Year: 2003
Language: english

Reconsidering Science Learning
Reconsidering Science Learning looks at science learning in a wide range of contexts.
A variety of issues are explored in terms of curriculum and science provision in
both schools and universities and for adult learners in distance education settings.
The reader is divided into four parts. Part 1 deals with the arguments put
forward for studying science and includes a discussion on what science learners
need to know about the nature of science and how decisions about what forms
science curricula are made. Part 2 includes chapters on the processes by which
science is learned. Part 3 focuses on opportunities for developing science learning
for all students, including extending access to science knowledge and increasing
students’ motivation for learning science. The fourth part deals with researching
science education.
Reconsidering Science Learning will be of particular interest to teachers on masters
courses in science education and academics with an interest in science education.
This is a companion book to Mediating Science Learning through Information and
Communications Technology, also published by RoutledgeFalmer.
Eileen Scanlon, Patricia Murphy, Jeff Thomas and Elizabeth Whitelegg are all
members of The Open University MSc in Science team.

SEH806 Contemporary Issues in Science Learning
The companion volume in this series is Mediating Science Learning Through Informa-
tion and Communications Technology (ICT) by Richard Holliman and Eileen Scanlon.
Both of the Readers are part of a course, Contemporary Issues in Science
Learning (SEH806), that is itself part of an MSc in Science Programme at the
Open University and also counts towards the MA in Education and the MA in
Online and Distance Education.
The Open University MSc in Science
The MSc in Science at the Open University is a relatively new ‘distance-taught’
programme that has been designed for students who want to explore broad scien-
tific topics at postgraduate level. It provides opportunities to pursue some of
science’s most pressing issues using the innovative teaching methods pioneered at
The Open University.
Structure of the MSc in Science
The MSc in Science is a modular programme that allows students to select modules
that best fit with their interests and professional goals. The Programme has two
main themes or ‘strands’: Science Studies and Frontiers in Medical Science.
Modules currently available
Science and the Public
Communicating Science
Imaging in Medicine
Molecules in Medicine
Issues in Brain and Behaviour
The Project Module
It is also possible to count other OU modules towards the MSc in Science and to
count MSc in Science modules towards other OU awards such as the MA in
Education.
OU supported learning
The MSc in Science Programme, in common with other OU programmes, provides
great flexibility. Students study at their own pace and in their own time, anywhere
in the European Union. They receive specially prepared study materials and
benefit from tutorial support (electronically and at day schools), thus offering them
the chance to work with other students.
How to apply
If you would like to register for this Programme, or find out more information, visit
our website http://www.open.ac.uk/science/msc. If you would like to find out more
general information about available courses, please contact the Course Informa-
tion and Advice Centre, PO Box 724, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton
Keynes MK7 6ZS, UK (Telephone 01908 653231). Details can also be viewed on
our web pages: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses

Reconsidering
Science Learning
Edited by Eileen Scanlon,
Patricia Murphy, Jeff Thomas
and Elizabeth Whitelegg

First published 2004
by RoutledgeFalmer
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeFalmer 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2004 The Open University
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested
ISBN 0–415–32831–4 (pbk)
ISBN 0–415–32830–6 (hbk)
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
ISBN 0-203-46402-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-47072-9 (Adobe eReader Format)

Contents
List of illustrations ix
Sources xi
Preface xiii
PART 1
What is science? 1
1.1 What is science? Teaching science in secondary schools 3
MICHAEL REISS
1.2 School science, citizenship and the public understanding of science 13
EDGAR W. JENKINS
1.3 School science and its problems with scientific literacy 21
PETER FENSHAM
PART 2
Learning science 37
2.1 The child 41
SUSAN GREENFIELD
2.2 Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom 58
ROSALIND DRIVER, HILARY ASOKO, JOHN LEACH,
EDUARDO MORTIMER AND PHILIP SCOTT
2.3 Transforming schools into communities of thinking and learning
about serious matters 74
ANN L. BROWN
2.4 Narratives of science 90
JEROME BRUNER

2.5 Preparing students for competent scientific practice: implications
of recent research in science and technology studies 99
MICHELLE K. MCGINN AND WOLFF-MICHAEL ROTH
2.6 Where’s the science? Understanding the form and function of
workplace science 118
PETER CHIN, HUGH MUNBY, NANCY HUTCHINSON, JENNY TAYLOR
AND FIONA CLARK
2.7 Laboratories 135
JOHN WALLACE AND WILLIAM LOUDEN, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS
BY BEVAN MCGUINESS, WOLFF-MICHAEL ROTH AND PENNY J. GILMER
PART 3
Opportunities for developing inclusive science learning 151
3.1 Transcending cultural borders: implications for science teaching 153
OLUGBEMIRO J. JEGEDE AND GLEN S. AIKENHEAD
3.2 Cultural perspectives on the teaching and learning of science 176
KENNETH TOBIN
3.3 Defining ‘science’ in a multicultural world: implications for
science education 195
WILLIAM W. COBERN AND CATHLEEN C. LOVING
3.4 Marginalization of socio-scientific material in science–
technology–society science curricula: some implications
for gender inclusivity and curriculum reform 215
GWYNETH HUGHES
PART 4
Researching science education 233
4.1 Science education: research, practice and policy 235
EDGAR W. JENKINS
4.2 Science education and environmental education 250
SUSAN BARKER
Index 263
viii Contents

Illustrations
Figures
1.1.1 What is the relationship between science and that which it
describes? 5
2.3.1 Schematic representation of the basic system of activities
underlying FCL practices 79
2.3.2 Cross-sectional and microgenetic data on the number of
coherent connections between invented solutions
in the design of an animal of the future 81
2.3.3 Idealized developmental corridor for the design of science
instruction 85
2.6.1 A depiction of the theoretical framework 123
2.6.2 Areas for the development of instructional strategies 132
3.3.1 Native American views about nature 202
3.3.2 Epistemological pyramid 209
Tables
2.6.1 The three versions of science 121
3.1.1 An overview of a cultural approach to science education 159

Sources
Where a chapter in this book is based on or is a reprint or revision of material
previously published elsewhere, details are given below, with grateful acknowl-
edgements to the original publishers.
Chapter 1.1 This is an edited version of a chapter originally published in Amos, S.
and Boohan, R. (eds) Teaching Science in Secondary Schools, pp. 40–54, Routledge-
Falmer (2002).
Chapter 1.2 Reprinted from International Journal of Science Education 21(7),
pp. 703–10, Taylor and Francis (1999).
Chapter 1.3 This is an edited version of a chapter originally published in
Levinson, R. and Thomas, J. (eds) Science Today, pp. 119–36, Routledge (1997).
Chapter 2.1 This is an edited version of Chapter 3 in The Private Life of the Brain,
pp. 51–76, Penguin (2000).
Chapter 2.2 This is an edited version of an article originally published in Educa-
tional Researcher 23(7), pp. 5–12, ©American Educational Research Association
(1994).
Chapter 2.3 This is an edited version of an article originally published in American
Psychologist 52(4), pp. 399–413, ©American Psychological Association (1997).
Chapter 2.4 This is an edited version of Chapter 6 in The Culture of Education,
pp. 115–29, Harvard UP (1996).
Chapter 2.5 This is an edited version of an article originally published in Educa-
tional Researcher, 28(3), pp.14–24, ©American Educational Research Association
(1999).
Chapter 2.6 Adapted from a paper presented at National Association for
Research in Science Teaching, New Orleans, April 2002.
Chapter 2.7 This is an edited version of Chapter 3 in Wallace, J. and Louden, W.
(eds) Dilemmas of Science Teaching: perspectives and problems of practice, pp. 36–55,
RoutledgeFalmer (2002).

Chapter 3.1 This is an edited version of an article originally published in Research
in Science and Technological Education 17(1), pp. 45–66, Carfax Publishing Ltd,
(1999).
Chapter 3.2 This is an edited version of a chapter originally published in Ogawa,
M. (ed.) Effects of Traditional Cosmology on Science Education, pp. 15–21, Faculty of
Education, Ibaraki University, Japan (1997).
Chapter 3.3 This is an edited version of an article originally published in Science
Education 85(1), pp. 50–67, ©Wiley (2001).
Chapter 3.4 This is an edited version of an article originally published in Journal of
Research in Science Teaching 37(5), pp. 426–40, ©Wiley (2000).
xii Reconsidering science learning

Preface
This collection of readings has been chosen to complement the Open University’s
course on contemporary issues in science learning, which is part of a Master’s
degree. This is the first of two volumes which together provide our students with a
set of readings for their use in the course. The other reader deals with the impact of
new technology on science learning.
These two volumes of readings form a small part of the Master’s module on
Contemporary Issues which is part of a Master’s course in Science being produced in
the Science Faculty of the Open University by a team from the Faculties of Science
and Education and Language Studies and the Institute of Educational Technology.
It is followed by students aiming for the Master’s degree in the Studies of Science, but
it also can act as a subsidiary course aiming for other Open University Master’s
awards in Education and Open and Distance Learning. Study materials provided by
the University also include a study commentary, set texts and CD-ROMs with a
library of additional paper and video material produced by the BBC. Students also
have access to the Internet and receive tutorials using computer conferencing.
Some of the material in this reader has been newly commissioned by the editors
for use in our course. Some chapters have been adapted and edited from previously
published papers in journals, conference proceedings and books. As a result, a
range of styles has been used by the authors which were appropriate for the original
contents. A range of referencing styles is in use in this volume so students of our
course may notice that they do not all conform to our course referencing style.
This is a collection of readings dealing with contemporary issues in science
learning, and issues and debates in extending access to science knowledge and
research in science education. It is divided into four parts which cover issues of
what science should be taught, theories of learning which have an implication for
science education, opportunities for developing science learning for all and
research in science education. The first part includes a discussion of the nature of
science and the relationships between science, citizenship and the public under-
standing of science and interactions between school science and its problems with
scientific literacy. The second part draws on a wide range of writing on learning
from biologists, educationalists, psychologists and science educators. It includes
discussions of learning communities for science, learning science in the workplace
and laboratory work. The third part explores different aspects of extending access

to science knowledge. This examines the implications of cultural perspectives on
learning science and the role of context in learning science, multicultural and
gender-inclusive approaches. The fourth part on researching science education
reflects on the status and methods used in such work.
The editors would like to thank the other members of the course team for their
help in selecting the articles. We would also like to thank Cheryl Newport, Carol
Johnstone, Gillian Riley and Pat Forster for their invaluable help in the production
of this volume. Opinions expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of the
course team or the Open University.
The editors of the volume would also like to thank the authors who produced
newly commissioned articles: Peter Chin, Hugh Munby, Nancy Hutchinson, Jenny
Taylor and Francis Clark, Queen’s University, Canada; Edgar Jenkins, University
of Leeds; and Susan Barker, University of Warwick, UK.
Eileen Scanlon
xii Preface

Part 1
What is science?
Jeffery N. Thomas
Those anxious about contemporary representations of science in the media dwell
on the presumed disparity between the image of science and the reality as imagined
by insiders. A concern with the representation of science in the classroom surely
needs to occupy as significant a place within the current educational debate. The
impressions of science acquired in early education are presumably especially
durable, shaping perceptions more fundamentally than the ephemeral and mixed
messages that often comprise informal learning. For this reason, the beguilingly
simple questions of ‘what science?’ and ‘for what purpose?’ need to preface any
contemporary debate about science education.
The readings in the first section provide this curtain-raiser to what follows,
touching on the heavily contested topics of the nature of science and the purposes
of science education. Their aim is to challenge and to energize the reader. Michael
Reiss’s stimulating and wide-ranging article ‘What is science?’ sets the scene, by
exploring how the richness, complexity and occasional contradiction that is
contemporary science might be represented in the classroom. In his view, today’s
science is far from rule-bound, unsullied and standardized; he argues for science
that is located within a cultural milieu, with the boundaries of the subject blurred
and tolerant of leakage.
Edgar Jenkins’s elegant article brings together two disciplines that have usually
occupied separate territories and traditions – educational and sociological perspec-
tives on how science understanding is handled. His pioneering work with David
Layton and colleagues showed that citizens lacking a formal knowledge base can be
wonderfully adept self-learners when they have the motivation and opportunity to
find out about aspects of science that have a particular bearing on their lives. The
plea that the science that young people learn has clearer social purpose and rele-
vance therefore seems unarguably clear. But the fact that many such science issues
are entwined with a host of attendant social contexts – including issues of trust,
expertise, media representation and institutional interests – requires of young
people a sensitivity to forms of knowledge and thinking far removed from the
narrow world of science. A science curriculum rich in ‘citizen science’ requires an
approach and content far removed from the insular and fact-rich lessons that are
still widespread today.
Anxieties about ‘what science?’ and ‘for what purpose?’ have a global relevance

and timeliness. Peter Fensham’s account of efforts urging the abandonment of
traditional curricula and the introduction of a genuine ‘science for all’ reports more
frustration than it does achievement. Given that the type of curriculum he advo-
cates shows a ‘warts and all’ science – richer for example in ‘the subjective, irra-
tional … (and) social construction’ – resistance to change might be expected from
the scientific community. His observation that the forces of educational conserva-
tism run much deeper is enlightening. Science educators themselves are seen to
have an ambiguous role. Our lack of research understanding about how students
experience the type of socio-scientific issues that characterize the new-style curric-
ulum suggests that moving ahead will itself be far from risk-free.
If readings are meant to inspire, provoke and unsettle, then these few chapters
will reveal how great is the need for change and how uncertain is the uncharted
path ahead.
2 Reconsidering science learning

1.1 What is science?
Teaching science in
secondary schools
Michael Reiss
I have found Ms … has had to deal with another problem: the history of science is
almost entirely the history of Western science, and Ms … has almost no knowledge
of European history since classical times. This is obviously a considerable drawback
in coming to a general view or coming to grips with many broader problems in the
development of science …
(Copied from a 1981 end-of-term supervision report of a student
from Pakistan doing the second-year undergraduate course in
History of Science at Cambridge University)
Who are scientists?
A while ago, I happened to see a new set of postage stamps produced in the UK, enti-
tled ‘Scientific achievements’ (issued 5 March 1991). It’s worth spending a few
moments imagining what you might expect (or hope!) to see on these stamps. Well,
whatever you thought, the Royal Mail produced four stamps under the heading Scien-
tific achievements’ with the captions ‘Faraday – Electricity’, ‘Babbage – Computer’,
‘Radar – Watson-Watt’ and ‘Jet Engine – Whittle’. I find it difficult to imagine a
narrower conception of what science is and who does it. The image seems to be that
real science is hard physics, with military applications, done by males who are white
and worked on their own between about 1820 and 1940. No wonder so many
students drop science at school as soon as they have the chance! Children come to
school science lessons with clear impressions of what science is, how it operates and
who does it (Driver et al. 1985; Osborne and Freyberg 1985). There is a limit to what
science teachers can realistically be expected to achieve in terms of challenging
social perceptions and changing received wisdom.
It seems sad that the Royal Mail could produce a set of stamps that portrayed such
a biased view of science. Stamps to feature scientists could convey the notion that
women do science, that science didn’t start in the nineteenth century and finish
around the time of the Second World War, that it isn’t a Western construct, that it is
done by people working in groups and that it permeates every area of life. […]

The nature of science
The popular view of what science is and how it proceeds probably goes something
like this:
Science consists of a body of knowledge about the world. The facts that
comprise this knowledge are derived from accurate observations and careful
experiments that can be checked by repeating them. As time goes on, scientific
knowledge steadily progresses.
Such a view persists, not only among the general public, but also among science
teachers and scientists despite the fact that most historians of science, philosophers
of science, sociologists of science and science educationalists hold it to be, at best,
simplified and misleading and, at worst, completely erroneous (Latour 1987;
Woolgar 1988; Wellington 1989; Harding 1991).
It is not too much of a caricature to state that science is seen by many as the way
to truth. Indeed, a number of important scientists have encouraged such a view by
their writings and interviews (e.g. Peter Atkins and Richard Dawkins). It is gener-
ally assumed that the world ‘out there’ exists independently of the particular scien-
tific methodology used to study it (Figure 1.1.1). The advance of science then
consists of scientists discovering eternal truths that exist independently of them
and of the cultural context in which these discoveries are made. All areas of life are
presumed amenable to scientific inquiry. Truth is supposed to emerge unambigu-
ously from experiment like Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom, springing mature
and unsullied from the head of Zeus. This view of science is mistaken for a number
of reasons, which I now want to discuss.
Scientists have to choose on what to work
What scientists ‘choose’ to work on is controlled partly by their background as indi-
viduals and partly by the values of the society in which they live and work. Most
scientific research is not pure but applied. In particular, approximately one half of
all scientific research funding is provided for military purposes. To give just one
specific example of the way society determines the topics on which scientists
should work: the 1980s saw a significant reduction in Great Britain in the level of
research into systematics, taxonomy and nomenclature (the classification, identifi-
cation and naming of organisms). This was a direct result of changes in government
funding which, for instance, required the Natural History Museum in London, the
major UK centre for such research, to generate much of its own income. As a
result, the number of scientists working there in these disciplines more than halved
as such scientists generate very little income.
Now, my point is not specifically to complain at the demise of systematics,
taxonomy and nomenclature in the UK, but to point out that society and individual
scientists have to choose on what to work. To a very large extent that choice is not

determined on purely scientific criteria (if such criteria exist), but by political machi-
nations and by the priorities (some would describe them as quirks) of funding bodies.
Scientists do not discover the world out there as it is
Scientists approach their topics of study with preconceptions. There is no such
thing as an impartial observation. In the classroom, this is seen to be the case every
time a group of pupils is asked, for the first time, to draw some cells or sulphur crys-
tals under the microscope. It isn’t possible until you know what to draw. Unless you
know that a leaf of pondweed consists of numerous small, brick-like structures, all
you can see is a mass of green with lines and occasional air bubbles. […]
Instances are legion where we can look back and see how scientists have uncon-
sciously interpreted what they have seen in the light of their cultural heritage. In
his book Metaphors of Mind, Robert Sternberg points out that much of the present
confusion surrounding the concept of intelligence stems from the variety of stand-
points from which the human mind can be viewed (Sternberg 1990). The
geographic metaphor is based on the notion that a theory of intelligence should
provide a map of the mind. This view dates back at least to Gall, an early nineteenth-
century German anatomist and perhaps the most famous of phrenologists. Gall
investigated the topography of the head, looking and feeling for tiny variations in
the shape of the skull. According to him, a person’s intelligence was to be discerned
What is science? 5
Figure 1.1.1 What is the relationship between science and that which it describes?
(Copyright: Chris Madden.)

in the pattern of their cranial bumps. A second metaphor, the computational
metaphor, envisions the mind as a computing device and analogizes the processes
of the mind to the operations of a computer. Other metaphors discussed by Stern-
berg include the biological metaphor, the epistemological metaphor, the anthropo-
logical metaphor, the sociological metaphor and the systems metaphor. The point
is that what scientists see and the models they construct to mirror reality depend
very much on where their point of view is.
A clear example of how the work that scientists do is inevitably affected by who
they are is provided by Jane Goodall’s seminal (if that is not too sexist a term!)
research on chimpanzee behaviour. When she first arrived to study the chimpan-
zees on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, the game warden who took her round made
a mental note that she wouldn’t last more than six weeks. She has stayed for forty
years, producing the definitive accounts of chimpanzee social organization and
behaviour in her fascinating and moving books In the Shadow of Man (van Lawick-
Goodall 1971) and The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior (Goodall 1986).
An important point about Jane Goodall is that she had no formal training in
ethology (the science of animal behaviour), having trained as a secretary after
leaving school. As she herself wrote, ‘I was, of course, completely unqualified to
undertake a scientific study of animal behaviour’ (van Lawick-Goodall 1971: 20).
However, she spent some time with the celebrated palaeontologist Louis Leakey and
his wife, Mary, on one of their annual expeditions to Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti
plains. Louis Leakey became convinced that Goodall was the person he had been
looking for for twenty years – someone who was so fascinated by animals and their
behaviour that they would be happy to spend at least two years studying chimpanzees
in the wild. Leakey was particularly interested in the chimpanzees on the shores of
Lake Tanganyika as the remains of prehistoric people had often been found on lake
shores and he thought it possible that an understanding of chimpanzee behaviour
today might shed light on the behaviour of our Stone Age ancestors.
Goodall couldn’t believe that Leakey was giving her the chance to do what she
most wanted to do – watch chimpanzees in their natural habitat. She felt that her
lack of training would disqualify her. But, as she later wrote:
Louis, however, knew exactly what he was doing. Not only did he feel that a
university training was unnecessary, but even that in some ways it might have
been disadvantageous. He wanted someone with a mind uncluttered and unbi-
ased by theory who would make the study for no other reason than a real desire
for knowledge; and, in addition, someone with a sympathetic understanding of
animal behaviour.
(van Lawick-Goodall 1971: 20)
Now the point, of course, is not that Jane Goodall could approach chimpanzees
with a mind ‘uncluttered and unbiased by theory’ but that the clutter and theory in
her mind was crucially distinct from that in someone who emerged from a univer-
sity course in ethology. In the 1960s, one of the great heresies of academic ethology
was to be anthropomorphic – to treat non-humans as if they had human attributes

and feelings. That is precisely what Jane Goodall did and it allowed fundamentally
new insights into chimpanzee behaviour. A flavour of her approach can be
obtained by reading the following quote:
One day, when Flo was fishing for termites, it became obvious that Figan and
Fifi, who had been eating termites at the same heap, were getting restless and
wanted to go. But old Flo, who had already fished for two hours, and who was
herself only getting about two termites every five minutes, showed no signs of
stopping. Being an old female, it was possible that she might continue for
another hour at least. Several times Figan had set off resolutely along the track
leading to the stream, but on each occasion, after repeatedly looking back at
Flo, he had given up and returned to wait for his mother.
Flint, too young to mind where he was, pottered about on the heap, occasion-
ally dabbling at a termite. Suddenly Figan got up again and this time approached
Flint. Adopting the posture of a mother who signals her infant to climb on to her
back, Figan bent one leg and reached back his hand to Flint, uttering a soft
pleading whimper. Flint tottered up to him at once, and Figan, still whimpering,
put his hand under Flint and gently pushed him on his back. Once Flint was
safely aboard, Figan, with another quick glance at Flo, set off rapidly along the
track. A moment later Flo discarded her tool and followed.
(van Lawick-Goodall 1971: 114–15)
Other writers at the time did not give names to their animals; nor did they use
language like ‘getting restless’, ‘wanted to go’, ‘set off resolutely’ and ‘pottered
about’; nor did they impute to their subjects the ability consciously to manipulate
one another.
Apart from her lack of formal training, there is another factor about Jane
Goodall that may well be significant. She is a woman. The longest-running studies
on animal behaviour have all been carried out by women including: Jane Goodall
on chimpanzees (1960 to present); Dian Fossey on gorillas (1966 to 1985 when she
was murdered, probably because of her dedication to the gorillas); and Fiona
Guinness on red deer (1972 to present). All three worked/work quite exceptionally
long hours with what can only be described as total dedication. In 1978 and 1979, I
spent a couple of months working alongside Fiona Guinness. On average, she
worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week.
My point is not that research scientists ought to work this long, nor that only
women can show the empathy with animals that these three did or do. Rather, it is
that the personal and social pressures that shaped Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and
Fiona Guinness were crucial to the type of science that they carried out or do carry
out. And this is true for all scientists. It’s just that it is easier to see in these three
cases. Donna Haraway, in her book Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the
World of Modern Science, argues that scientific practice is story-telling. The work
that primatologists do is moulded by the environment in which they operate and by
the sort of people they are, so that the stories that they tell reflect the social
agendas that surround them (Haraway 1989).
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PRESERVATION; STORAGE, AND TRANSPORTATION. 245 of
potassium or sodium, wliicli dissolves the sulphur and leaves the
charcoal, the weight of which may be easily determined. It is
important that the sulphides of potassium and sodium used in
dissolving the sulphur should contain no free potassa or soda ; for
each of these alkalies would dissolve a part of the carbon, —
particularly of the brown coal. The sulphide of carbon also dissolves
the sulphur contained in powder, and may be used to determine the
weight of charcoal which it contains. The charcoal, separated from
the saltpetre and sulphur, is dried with care and weighed, and should
then be submitted to analysis in an apparatus used for burning
organic matters. The composition of the charcoal may be judged of
by comparing it with the results obtained in the analysis of charcoal
of known quality used in the manufacture of powder. To determine,
the quantity of Sulphur directly. — Mix and beat in a mortar 10
grains of dry powder, 10 of subcarbonate of potash, 10 of saltpetre,
and 40 of chloride of sodium ; put this mixture in a vessel (capsule)
of platinum or glass, on live coals, and, when the combination of the
materials is completed and the mass is white, dissolve it in distilled
water, and saturate the solution with nitric acid ; decompose the
sulphate which has been formed, by adding a solution of chloride of
barium, in which the exact proportions of the water and the chloride
are known. According to the atomic proportions, the quantity of
sulphur will be to that of the chloride of barium used as 20.12 to
152.44. Restoring UnserviceaMe Foicder. When powder has been
damaged by being stored in damp places, it loses its strength, and
requires to be worked over. If the quantity of moisture absorbed do
not exceed 7 per cent., it is sufficient to dry it to restore it for
service. This is done by expoi^ing it to the sun. When powder has
absorbed more than 7 per cent, of water, it is sent to the powder-
mills to be worked over. When it has been damaged with salt water,
or become mixed with foreign matters which cannot be separated by
sifting, the saltpetre is dissolved out from the other materials and
collected by evaporation. Preservation, Storage, and Transportation.
In the powder-magazines the barrels are generally placed on the

sides, three tiers high, or four tiers, if necessary. Small skids should
be placed on the floor and between the several tiers of barrels, in
order to steady them, and chocks should be placed at intervals on
the lower skid, to prcTent the rolling of the barrels. The powder
should be separated according to its kind, the place and date of
fabrication, and the proof-range. Fixed

FRENCH GUNPOWDER. 247 Bwept with a biush wherever
they can be got at, to remove the insects vrhich deposit their eggs
at this season. In wagons, barrels of powder must be packed in
straw, secured in such a manner as not to rub against each other,
and the load covered with thick canvas. In transportation by railroad,
each barrel should be carefully boxed, and packed so as to avoid all
friction. The barrels should have a thick tarpaiilin under them. The
cars should have springs similar to those of passenger-cars. English
Gunpowder. English gunpowder — particularly their sporting-powder
— has long been noted for its excellence, which is due to the care
taken in selecting the best materials, and the skill in combining
them. The woods used for making charcoal for gunpowder are the
black dogwood, the alder, and the Dutch white willow. The coal is
made by distillation in iron cylinders. The ingredients are separately
reduced to an impalpable powder and passed through silk cloths or
bolting-machines, then mixed in a tub in charges of 42 lbs. each,
moistened with 2 or 3 pints of water, and incorporated in the
cylinder-mill for 3J hours. The iron cylinders of the cylinder-mill are 6
feet in diameter, weigh about 3 tons each, and make about 8
revolutions in a minute in a circular iron trough 7 feet in diameter.
The incorporated material is subjected to a pressure of 75 tons to
the square foot by means of a hydrostatic press, forming it into
pressed cake, which is broken by toothed rollers and formed into
grains as above described. It is glazed by rolling in a canvas cylinder,
or large cask, making 40 revolutions per minute, for 1} hours. It is
dried in a temperature of 140° to 150°, raised by means of steam.
French Gunpowder. The charcoal used by the French in making
gunpowder is obtained by the combustion of black alder in the open
air in iron pots. At the powder-mills at Saint-Chamas, the charcoal is
made by distillation, effected by passing a current of steam raised to
a temperature of 540° to 600° into the iron cylinder containing the
wood. Charcoal of an excellent quality is said to be obtained in this
way. The materials are pulverized separately in leathern barrels by
means of bronze balls, and passed through a sieve to separate any
foreign matters which may have accidentally fallen in and might

cause explosions in trituration. Two and three-fourths pounds of
sulphur and the same of charcoal are weighed into a tub, moistened
with 1^ quart of water, and mixed by hand for 5 minutes. It is then
transferred to the composition-tray, 16J lbs. of 21*

248 OUDNANCIE MANUAL. saltpetre are added, and tlie tijiy
taken to the pounding-mill. The contents are emptied into a mortar
and well mixed witli the hand for several minutes, without further
addition of water. A pounding-mill contains usually from IG to 24
mortars and pestles, arranged in two parallel rows. The mortars are
hollowed out of a piece of oak, with bottoms made of a harder
wood. The pestle is made of beech, and has on its lower end a
bronze shoe with its angles well rounded. It Aveighs about 88 lbs.,
and falls through a height of IG inches. Each pestle gives in the
beginning of the pounding from 30 to 40 blows per minute, and
after 10 minutes the number of blows is increased to 55 or GO per
minute. The pounding is continued in this way for 12 hours,
including the stoppages for shifting the charges from one mortar to
the next, — which is done every hour. These changes are made to
mix the materials more thoroughly, and to break the cakes which
form at the bottom of the mortars. From the 6th to the 8th change,
about ] pint of water is added, or as much as may be necessary to
give to the composition from 7 to 8 per cent, of moisture. During the
last 2 hours no changes are made, so as not to interrupt the
formation of cake. The composition is taken out of the mortar and
dried from 1 to 3 days, till it contains only about 6 per cent, of
moisture. It is then taken to the house for granulation. This
operation is performed in a barrel made by stretching two pieces of
wire-cloth over a wooden frame. The pieces of wire-cloth are placed
one over the other, — the outer one fastened on by cords so as to
be removed at pleasure, and replaced by another of different-sized
meshes, the meshes being of the size of the grain required, of
musket or cannon powder. The distance between the wires of the
inner cloth is .28 inch. Balls of hard wood 2 inches in diameter, and
50 or 60 in number, are placed, with the composition to be grained,
in the barrel, which is made to revolve about 30 times in a minute.
The caked composition is broken by the balls, and, passing through
the wirecloths, falls into a tub beneath. The contents of the tub are
sifted in sieves which pei'mit the small grains and dust to pass
through. The powder is moderately' glazed by rolling it, while still

containing from 5 to G per cent, of moisture, in a barrel from 10 to
30 minutes, — depending upon the kind of powder and the amount
of moisture it contains. It is so conducted that the powder, when dry,
should have a gravimetric density of between 820 and 860 ounces.
Tlie powder is then passed through a standard sieve of parchment,
and is dried either in the open air, spread out on sheets, on tables,
or in a drying-room, spread on sheets stretched over the top of
boxes, into the lower part of which heated air is forced and escapes
by passing through the powder. After drying, the powder is again
sifted, to remove all dust.

ELECTRO-BALLISTIC PENDULUM. 249 Proportions of
Iiif/redioUg. Saltpetre. Charcoal. Sulpbixr. By the atomic llieovy 74.64
13.51 11.85 In the United States : 17 .1 -r. • f76 14 10 For the
military service J 75 15 10 T? ,- (78 12 10 ^^^^P"*'^"^ {77 13
10 In England ; For the military service 75 15 10 ,, ,. r78 14 8
^'''l^^'^'-S {75 17 8 In France: For the military service 75 12.5 12.5
For sporting 78 12 10 For blasting 62 18 20 In Prussia: For the
military service 75 13.5 11.5 In Spain : For the military service 76.5
12.7 10.8 Captain Benton's Electro-Ballistic Pendulum. — (Plate 29.)
Description. — This instrument consists of a vertical arc of brass
graduated into degrees and fifths, supported by a tripod with a
thumb-screw at each foot. Levels are attached to the arc, that it may
be kept in a vertical position. Two pendulums, with their axes in the
same line passing through the centre, and perpendicular to the
plane, of the arc, swing freely in front of and near to the arc. To the
lower extremity of each is attached a piece of soft iron. The bob of
the outer pendulum is adjustable. An electro-magnet is attached to
each end of the horizontal limb of the arc, and holds the pendulums
horizontal, or at 90° from the 0° or lowest point of the arc, when the
soft iron of the pendulum is brought in contact with the magnet. The
inner pendulum has at its lower extremity a movable point projecting
toward the arc, the head of whicli is struck by a blunt steel point on
the outer pendulum when the two pass each other, leaving a mark
on the paper which is clamped to the arc for that purpose. Wire
conductors lead from the magnet to the clamp-screws secured to
the upright limb, where they are readily joined to the wires leading
to the batteries and targets. 2'he adjustments. — 1st. Level the
instrument by means of the thumb-screws. 2d. See that the
magnets are in such a position that each pendulum when brought
up against them is exactly 90° from the lowest point of the arc. The
magnets are held by clamp-screws to admit of this adjustment, 3d.
Move the bob of the outer pendulum till the times of vibration of the
two are the same. This is done by connecting the wire of the magnet
to the poles of the battery, including the disjunctor in the circuit.
Bring the two batteries to the same strength. Break the currents by

means of the disjunctor, and see if the two pendulums meet exactly
at the zero-mark.

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Rodman's pressure-piston. 251 every shot, and the distance
between its wires is regulated in the same manner. For small arms a
much finer wire is used to form the target. Captain Rodman^ s
Pressure- Piston. (Plate 29.) This instrument is used to determine
the pressure of the gas on the sides of the bore of a gun. It consists
of a housing of wrought iron, with a cylindrical shank at one end,
chased with the threads of a screw, by which it is attached to the
gun. This shank has a cylindrical hole through its axis, .37 inch in
diameter, into which the piston fits closely. The head of the piston is
terminated by a cutter, which is forced by the explosion of the
charge into a piece of wrought copper, leaving a cut or indentation
of greater or less length, according to the greater or less pressure on
the sides of the bore. The cutter is made broad and thin, so as to
make a long cut compared with its breadth and depth, that
pressures which vary but slightly may be distinguished more readily.
A strong screio, at the opposite end of the housing to the shank,
holds the disk of copper on the cutter. A gas-check, made of thin
copper, is set up, by a die and punch, in the shape of a hollow,
shallow cup. It is placed against the lower end of the piston, the
open end toward the charge of powder. A hole, .4 inch in diameter,
is drilled into the bore of the gun at the seat of the charge ; the
outer part is counter-bored and tapped so as to receive the housing.
To use the pressure-piston. — Clean and oil the piston and the hole
in the housing into which it works; insert the piston in the housing;
put in the gas-check, pressing it down on the piston ; place a thin
copper washer in the hole in the gun, and screw the housing down
firmly on it ; place a disk of copper on the cutter ; interpose
between this and the head of the screw a second disk, and press it
down hard on the cutter. After each discharge, unscrew the housing,
take out the gas- check, clean the hole in the gun, the piston and
the hole in which it works ; renew the gas-check as often as
required ; see that the copper disk is pressed hard on the cutter. The
actual pressure in pounds is determined by placing the cutter in the
dynamometer, and applying a pressure until a cut is made of the
same length in a similar piece of copper.

:o2 ORDNANCE MANUAL. LIGHTNING-CONDUCTORS.
(Condensed fi-om a ''Circular Memorandum" issued by General
Burgoyne, Inspector-General of Fortifications, British Army, from the
researches of Sir Wm. Snow Harris, F.R.S., 1858.) It appears to be
established: — That metal in a building, whether disposed in the
form of a conductor or otherwise, never attracts lightning. That,
provided the surfaces of metals are not interrupted by bodies
possessing a less conducting-power, a building entirely of metal will
be the safest of all, and that such buildings require no further
lightning-conductors than connections with the earth, over the
masonry foundations on which the}' are often laid. That, with regard
to a building of brick or stone, the object must be to establish a
sufficient number of lines of electrical conductors, extending from its
most elevated and prominent points to the ground, and further bring
the building into a condition similar to that of a metal building, by
means of other conductors generally attached to more prominent
lines of the building itself, such as the ridges, angles, and eaves.
There is no advantage, but the contrary, in endeavoring to insulate
the conductors from tlic building. The best material for conductors is
copper, either in tubes 1 J to 2 inches diameter, and .125 inch thick,
or in plates 3.5 inches wide and .125 inch to .2 incli thick. All metal
surfaces, whether lead, copper, or iron, on ridges, roofs, gutters, or
coverings to doors or Avindows, to be connected by plates of copper
with the conducting-pystem. Lead, on account of its low
conductingpower, canncit be altogether depended upon. One or
more solid copper rods, to project freely into the air, about 5 feet
above tlie highest points of the building to which the main
conductors are applied. The summit of the rod to be pointed; but
gold, gilt, or platinum tops are unnecessary. Tlie termination of the
conductors below to be led into damp or porous soil, when the
building happens to stand upon it; but, when the soil is dry, two or
three trenches to be cut, radiating from the foot of the conductor, to
a dcptli of 18 inches or 2 feet, and 30 feet in length, and either the
conductor carried along tlie bottom of the trenches, or old iron chain
laid in them, carefully connected Avith the foot of the conductor. The

trenches to be tlien filled up to one foot in depth with coal-ashes, or
other carbonaceous sui)stance. and afterward with earth or gravel.
If it 1)0 possihle, in regulating the surface-drainage, to lead a flow of
Wilier, duriiig tlie vain which geuerally acc(,mpanics thunder-storms,
over the sites of the trendies, it will be an additional precaution.

LIGHTNING-CONDUCTORS. 253 Tanks are useless, except
wliere the Avater flows freely into them from the surrounding soil ;
and even then they are superfluous as appendages to the
conductors. The conductors for a brick or stone magazine with slate
roof should consist of a sheet-copper strip 4 inches wide and .125
inch thick, covering the ridge and securely fixed to it by wrought-
copper nails. At each end of the ridge a solid copper rod, .5 inch in
diameter, is fixed to the conductor on the ridge, and projects about 5
feet above the highest point of the building ; its upper end is
pointed. Copper strips, 3 inches wide, or copper tubes, 1 inch in
diameter, pass down the angles of the hip, and are firmly secured to
the copper eaves-gutter. The descending water-pipes, made also of
copper, and fastened to the face of the building by copper holdfasts,
are connected at their lower end to the underground conductor by a
piece of copper, 3 inches wide, wrapped around the lower end of the
water-pipes and riveted to the underground conductor. The
underground conductor runs out from the building 4 feet, and then
branches into two parts, each 8 feet long, 2 inches wide, and .125
inch thick. These conductors are about 2.5 feet from the surface of
the ground at the loAver end, and are covered with coal-ashes and
earth. The copper sheathings on the doors and windows are
connected with the lower end of the water-pipes by flat copper
strips, 2 inches wide, fixed to the water-table by copper nails driven
into wood plugs about 10 feet apart. When tubular conductors
cannot be had of sufficient length in one piece, they are connected
by a union joint, and strengthened by a small pipe or ferrule, about
4 inches long, inside the tube, and riveted to each end. Buildings
which have the eaves-gutters and down-pipes made of tin or zinc
should have a main conductor communicating directly with the
ground : it should also be connected with the eaves-gutter, and the
down-pipe should connect by a metallic communication with the
ground, running out some distance from the building. In case of
buildings situate on a dry or rocky soil, especial pains must be taken
to lay down old chains or other conductors in various directions, to a
distance of 10 to 15 yards, and from 1 foot to 1.5 foot below the

surface of the ground ; and, if possible, lead a flow of rain over the
surface of the ground about or near the conductor. Let the conductor
terminate in a large surface of moist earth whenever it can be
eff'ected. If copper be not used for conductors, zinc is the next best
material of which they can be made. If iron be used, it should be in
the shape of galvanized wrought-iron pipe, not less than 2 inches in
diameter, firmly screwed together in joints of extra thickness. Copper
tube, of a thickness of from .125 to .2 inch, is always to be preferred
: it has more than five times the capacity for conducting electricity
that iron has, and more than three times that of zinc.

254 ORDNANCE MANUAL. CHAPTER TENTH. AMMUNITION
AND MILITAEY FIREWORKS. BUILDINGS. In a large establishment
for the preparation of ammunition and fireworks four separate
buildings are required. No. 1 should have a porch, and contain at
least four rooms, viz. : Cartridge-room, for making paper and flannel
cartridges of all kinds. Filling-room, for filling cartridges for cannon
and small arms. Packing-room, for putting up ammunition for
transportation or storage. Store-room, for materials and tools. No. 2.
Furnace or smith shop, should have three rooms, — two entirely cut
off" from the third by a partition-wall : Driving-room, for driving
rockets, fuzes, &c. Mixing-room, for mixing compositions. Furnace-
room, for casting fuzes or bullets, and making compositions
requiring the use of fire. The floors are laid with brick or flagging.
No. 3. Carpenter's shop. No. 4. Magazine, for powder, fixed
ammunition, &c. All these buildings should be at a distance from
inhabited buildings, apart from each other, and protected by trees or
traverses of earth placed between them. The size of the rooms must
be regulated by the number of artificers to be accommodated. In
small establishments the number of rooms may be reduced, as the
same room may be used, at diff'erent times, for diff"erent purposes.
Fixtures aiid Furniture. 1. Cartridge-rooms. — A table for making
cartridges for small arms, 12 feet long and 2^ feet wide, for twelve
men or boys to work at, and the length in that proportion for any
greater number; tables for cutting paper and flannel, and for rolling
cases on; choker for rocket-cases; press for rocket and portfire cases
; benches for cartridge-tables ; stools. Closets should be partitioned
off from these rooms, and furnished with cases, drawers, racks, .and
shelves for materials and tools. 2. Filling-room. — A shelf, 2 feet
wide, for weighing on ; other shelves, ■with closets under them;
tables with raised borders, for filling, folding, &c. ; budge-barrels, or
powder-barrels with copper hoops and covers ;

FURNACES. 255 stools for seats ; foot-stools ; a step-ladder
; stands and gutters for emptying powder-barrels. 3. Packing-room.
— Tables, benches, and stools ; platform balance. 4. Store-room. —
Shelf for weighing on ; shelves, drawers, and closets ; tables, scales,
stools, seats, step-ladder. 5. Driving-room. — Blocks set in the
ground or pavement; benches and stools. In favorable weather, a
porch attached to the building, or a tent, may be used for a driving-
room. 6. Mixing-room. — Tables with raised edges ; sieves, &c. 7.
Furnace-room. — Furnaces ; workbenches ; platform balance, or
large scales; a tinner's bench and tools, with a vise, an anvil, and a
chest for tools ; a smith's forge, shovel, and poker ; stools, &c. 8.
Carpenters shop. — Turning-lathe and tools; carpenters' benches
and tools. 9. Magazine. — Shelves and frames for boxes and barrels.
Furnaces. Two kinds of furnaces are used in a laboratory : in the
first, the flame circulates around both the bottom and sides of the
kettle ; in the second, it comes in contact only with the bottom: the
latter are used for compositions of which gunpowder forms a part.
Furnaces are built of bricks. The kettle is of cast iron, about 2 feet in
diameter at the top, having a rounded bottom and a flange about 4
inches wide around the top, or else strong handles, to set it by. The
bottom is 0.75 inch thick and the sides 0.5 inch. By setting it in an
iron plate pierced with holes, encircling the bottom, a furnace of the
first kind may be converted into one of the second kind by stopping
the holes. Furnace for reducing the oxide of lead, or dross. — This
furnace is built in the open air, on a stone or brick foundation. It is
composed of a cylinder of sheet iron, 16 inches by 30 inches, lined
with refractory clay from 2 to 3 inches thick. The interior has the
form of an inverted frustum of a cone, terminating below in a basin,
the bottom of which is inclined toward a tap-hole. The fire is made
in the furnace, and the draught supplied by a bellows, the nozzle of
which enters at the top of the reservoir. The dross, and the charcoal
intended for its reduction, are thrown on the fire from the top of the
furnace. The metal, as it is reduced, flows into the basin, and
escapes through the tap-hole into an iron vessel, and is cast into

bars or pigs as desired. In the field, furnaces may be built with sods
or sunk in the earth, if bricks cannot be readily procured. 22

250 ORDNANCE MANUAL. Furnace built icith sods. — Let
the kettle rest on a trivet, the feet of which may stand on any piece
of flat iron, such as the bottom of a shot-canister or stand for grape,
the bottom of the kettle about 1 foot from the ground; buikl round it
with sods. The door of the furnace is 10 inches square; the flue of
the chimney, opposite to the door, 6 inches square, and commencing
about G inches from the ground; the first part of the flue inclined at
an angle of about 15°, — the rest vertical, and placed, if
circumstances permit, against a wall ; the top of the door and of the
flue may be supported by small bars of iron. Furnace sunk in the
earth. — The edge of the kettle should be about 1 inch above the
ground, and the bottom 12 to 15 inches above the hearth of the
furnace; the earth is dug down vertically 1 foot from the kettle for
the front of the furnace, and the door is cut out 10 inches square.
The earth is removed and sloped out, so as to give access to the
door ; the flue is bored out on the opposite side with a crowbar: it
commences 6 inches above the hearth and comes out. of the ground
18 inches from the furnace, whence it is carried horizontally about
13 feet. In furnaces of the second kind mentioned above, the trivet
may be omitted, and the kettle may rest on the sod or earth for
about 1 inch all round, and the earth rammed in against the sides of
the kettle. Precautions against Accidents. Avoid, as much as
possible, the use of iron in the construction of the buildings, fixtures,
tables, benches, boxes, &c. of the laboratory ; sink the heads of iron
nails if used, and fill over them with putty, or paste several
thicknesses of paper over them. Before the men go to work, cover
the floor with carpets or tarpaulins, which are taken up carefully
after the men leave and carried at least 50 yards from the building,
and there shaken thorouglily and swept. During the work, have the
carpets frequently swept. Place the stores in cloth bags in the
windows exposed to the sun. Prevent persons from entering with
sabres, swords, or caries, &c., or with matches about their persons.
Direct all Avho work where there is powder to wear moccasins or
socks, and to take them off" when they leave. Direct the men not to
drag their feet in walking. Make the doors and windows to open and

close easily, without friction; keep them open Avhencver the weather
permits. Never keep in the laboratory more powder than is
necessary, and have the ammunition and other work taken to the
magazine as fast as it is finished. Let powder barrels be carried in
hand-barrows made with leather, or with slings of rope or canvas,
and tlie ammunition in boxes. Let every tbing that is to be moved be
lifted, and not dragged or rolled on the floor.

MATERIALS. Z'O i Never drive rockets, portfires, &c., or
strap shot or shells, in a room -where there is any powder or
composition, except that used at the time. Loading and unloading
shells, driving rockets, pulverizing materials, the preparation of
compositions requiring the use of fire and in which the components
of gunpowder enter, ought to be done in all cases, when possible, in
the open air or under a tent, far from the laboratory and magazine.
Never enter the laboratory at night, unless it is indispensable, and
then use a close lantern, with a wax or oil light carefully trimmed.
Allow no smoking of tobacco near the laboratory. In melting lead, be
sure that it contains no moisture ; put the pigs in carefully, and do
not use more than will fill the pot two-thirds full. Use the same
precautions in melting fatty substances. Applications for Burns.
Exclude the air by applying to the burn fresh lard ; or bathe the part
burned, and cover it with linen soaked in a mixture of 8 parts of
sweet oil and 1 of hartshorn, well beaten together. MATERIALS.
Saltpetre. For vise in the laboratory, saltpetre should be freed from
all foreign substances and be reduced to a fine powder, or else to
very minute crystals. It is best pulverized in the rolling-barrels at the
powder-mills ; but it may be pulverized by hand in the laboratory, as
follows. Put into a rolling-harrel 50 lbs. of dry refined saltpetre and
100 lbs. of bronze balls; turn the barrel for two hours and a half, at
30 revolutions a minute, striking it, at the same time, with a mallet,
to prevent the saltpetre from adhering to the sides. Separate the
balls by means of a brass-wire screen, and the foreign substances
with a hair-sieve. Saltpetre may also be pulverized by pounding it in
a brass mortar, or by solution, as follows. Put 14 lbs. of refined nitre,
with 5 pints of clear water, in a broad and shallow copper pan, over
a slow fire, and, as the nitre dissolves, skim off the impurities ; stir
the solution with a Avooden spatxila until the water is all evaporated,
— when the nitre will be very white and fine. Should it boil too
much, the pan must be lifted from the fire and set upon wet sand or
earth, and the saltpetre should be stirred until it dries, to prevent it
from adhering to the pan. Charcoal Is the residuum of the
incomplete combustion or of the distillation of wood. Its composition

and properties vary witli the kind of wood from which it is made, and
with the mode of carbonization used.

258 ORDNANCE MANUAL. It is as much more dense and
compact as the wood from which it is made is harder and of a closer
texture; its density is nearly proportional to that of the wood, and its
combustibility seems to be as much greater as its density is less. The
best charcoal for fireworks is that which is most inflammable and
which leaves the least ashes, such as coals from black alder, willow,
poplar, hazel-tree, hemp-stalks, &c. Hard woods, generally, give
coals containing more ashes than light, soft ones; old trees more
than young ; dead trees more than living; in the same tree, the bark
more than the sapwood, — next the trunk, the roots, and, least of
all, the branches. In some cases, where long trains of fire are
desired, charcoal from hard woods, such as oak, maple, or beech, is
used. Charcoal for fireworks is best made in closed vessels. The
different processes of carbonization are only more or less rapid
distillations of the vegetable substance carried to a greater or less
extent. The volatile matters which are disengaged and the fixed
substances which remain vary at each moment, but in such a
manner that the character of the former indicates that of the latter.
In a slow distillation by a progressive heat not exceeding 570°,
bluish vapors are first disengaged, then carbonic and acetic acids,
empyreumatic oil, and soot in dark clouds burning with a red flame.
Carbonic oxide replaces, by degrees, the carbonic acid, the smoke
becomes clearer, and the flame takes a violet tint. Afterward
carburetted hydrogen is disengaged ; the smoke becomes
translucent; the flame passes from a violet to a yellow, then to a
more and more shining white. Finally the smoke disappears, and the
flame grows shorter and goes out. If the operation be stopped when
the flame of the gas becomes violet, about 40 per cent, of charcoal
will be obtained. If the operation be continued till the flame becomes
yellow, there will be had not more than 30 per cent, of coal. Finally,
not more than 15 per cent, will remain after the flame goes out. In
all of these cases, with slow distillation the carbonization is uniform
from the surface to the interior of each piece of wood, and requires
a longer time in proportion as the temperature is lower. In a rapid
distillation with a very strong heat, the gaseous products are

disengaged simultaneously ; the distillation on the surface of a piece
of wood is finished before it is hardly begun on the interior. To obtain
uniform results by this method, the distillation must be protracted till
from 15 to 20 per cent, of coal only is obtained. By the rapid
distillation a part i>f the incombustible matter is carried off, and the
coal remaining contains less ashes. The carbonization in boilers,
pots, pits, or heaps is nothing more iliau a rapid "distillation.
Cliavcoal obtained by stopping the carbonization when the violet
flame appears has a brown chocolate shade ; its fracture is bright
and even ; it is flexible, in thin pieces; reduced to a powder, it has a
greasy feeling

MATERIALS. 259 and a velvetty appearance ; it burns -with
a yellowish-blue flame, bright and without smoke; it gives out a
heavy sound when broken, and dissolves almost entirely in potassa.
Heated in a close vessel, it yields tar, pyroligneous acid, and 40 per
cent, of gas. It is composed of carbon 0,7G5, hydrogen 0.288, and
ashes 0.007. Charcoal obtained from a protracted distillation, when
only 15 per cent. is had, from dry wood, has a bluish-black color, is
hard and coarse ; it breaks easily, gives out a clear sound, burns
without flame, and is with difiiculty reduced to a powder ; it is then
dry to the touch, and does not easily form a cake by pressure : it is
insoluble in caustic potassa. It is composed of carbon .906,
hydrogen .076, and ashes .018. All charcoals are embraced within
the two preceding kinds, and approach more or less one or the
other. Coal which has not reached, the brown chocolate shade burns
with smoke ; it is called smoky coal : it is not yet charcoal. Charcoal
takes fire at about 460°. Black charcoal, highly calcined, takes fire
quickl}^, but is easily extinguished ; red charcoal is longer in taking
fire, but it keeps fire and burns up rapidly. This combustibility is as
much greater as the charcoal is lighter. Charcoal at a red heat
decomposes water to combine with its oxygen. Its absolute density
is at least 1.5 ; the apparent density is very variable. Charcoal does
not become a conductor of heat and electricity unless it has been
highly calcined at a white heat. It absorbs moisture rapidly from the
atmosphere, — particularly when in a state of fine powder. When
freshly prepared and pulverized, it absorbs and condenses gases ; it
grows warm ; and, if in a mass of more than about 30 lbs., it takes
fire spontaneously. Black charcoal, highly calcined, may be set on
fire, when in pieces, by a strong blow, or by friction. To make a
comparison between charcoals as to their action in compositions,
make an intimate mixture of 5 parts of saltpetre and 1 of the
charcoal to be tried, both well pulverized ; drive a fuze with the
composition, or press it in a metal tube of about one-quarter of an
inch bore ; take its weight and height, and determine the time of
burning by a watch or pendulum. The rapidity of combustion, or the
length of composition Avhicli burns in a second, measures the

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