THE MAN AND THE THERMOMETER IN ONE OF THE NITRATING-HOUSES.
"Death, instantaneous and pulverizing, encircles you, in fact, by the ton; but the man and the thermometer surround you also. The man's eyes never leave the instrument."
enormous quantities in combination with nitroglycerin to make blasting gelatin, of which it contributes seven per cent.; cordite, of which it is forty per cent.; and ballistite, which consists of sixty per cent, of soluble nitro-cotton and forty per cent, nitroglycerin. The extraordinary affinity of soluble nitro-cotton for nitroglycerin is a curious chemical fact. No matter how much water is present in the mixing-tank, every particle of gun-cotton will find and absorb the nitroglycerin, and this "wet-mixing process" as invented and carried on at Ardeer is admirable of its kind. The material for cordite, in the form of cordite paste, is made in
