"Keep your powder dry" is a sound military rule; it is also what makes powder manufacturing a risky business. Last week Western Cartridge Co. told of an unorthodox but effective and less hazardous method of making smokeless powder under water.
Under older methods, nitrocellulose (made by treating cotton or wood fibers with nitric and sulfuric acids) is forced through "macaroni" machines, chopped into grains of various sizes. This smokeless powder is necessarily handled dry in many stages of its manufacture, and in large quantities.
The new ball powder (so called because the grains are...
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