From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: Gun cotten
Date: 7 Jan 1996 21:24:24 GMT

In article <RGTYMOWS.87.000FA52E@BIOLOGY.watstar.uwaterloo.ca>,
RGTYMOWS@BIOLOGY.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (R. Tymowski) says:

>In article <4cn0f5$7p3@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L.
>Hurst) writes:
>
>>In article <4cmiqn$15t4@huey.cadvision.com>, you@somehost.somedomain
>>(Sam) says:
>>>Dose anyone know how or what gun cotten was used for?
>
>>Nitrocellulose was and/or is used for celluloid, smokeless powder,
>>gelatin dynamites, blasting gelatin, lacquer for early Ford 
>>automobiles, printing ink base, motion picture film and more. 
>
>Apparently, certain old billiard balls were made from NC. 

Yes, that was one of the uses of celluloid. The material was
even used for screwdriver handles as late as the WWII period.
In those days, modern plastics had not yet been invented.
Celluloid, hard rubber and phenolic were about all that was
available and these materials were used for everything from
ashtrays (phenolic) to bowling balls and combs (hard rubber).
Celluloid was the closest thing to our modern polymers in 
appearance and feel.  There are some products today which
are actually inferior to those of earlier days. Modern 
automotive finishes, for instance, are not as good as the 
nitrocellulose lacquer Henry Ford always used in black.

Jerry

From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: Gun cotten
Date: 18 Jan 1996 03:36:44 GMT

In article <4dk4kj$27j@bcarh8ab.bnr.ca>, yshan@bnr.ca (Yogi Shan) says:

>glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst) wrote:
>:
>:>Apparently, certain old billiard balls were 
>:>made from NC. 
>:
>:Yes, that was one of the uses of celluloid.
>
>Just a second, Jerry.
>
>Celluloid was developed by a rather enterprising
>chap who mixed camphor with nitrocellulose, and
>thus developed the first widely used commercial
>plastic.
>
>He developed celluloid in response to a US $10,000
>(or so) prize to find a cheap replacement material
>for the ivory in billiard balls (which was getting 
>too scarce/expensive).
>
>It was my understanding that though celluloid
>became an outstanding success, it was not good
>enough to replace ivory.

Yogi, that reminds me of the prize that was 
offered by the French for a process to manufacture
sodium bicarbonate. The poor guy who succeeded
never collected. Perhaps the synthetic material 
wasn't as good as whatever they were accustomed to :)

I'll go along with the reasoning that ivory billiard
balls are better than celluloid. Same for piano
keys, necklaces, watch fobs, combs and cameos. About the
functionality of celluloid billiard balls vis-a-vis
ivory, I dunno, and I'll wager it would be hard to
find a set of the former even if we had a set of
the latter to test against them.

The fact that someone reneged on a promised reward
sounds about par for the course whether the product
worked well or not.

I will say from personal experience that celluloid
made very good screwdriver handles in the 40s. My
father's burned beautifully after a second or two
in a gas flame. I always left him enough plastic 
intact to  get a good grip on the smaller but now 
improved non-slip surface.

My uncle (pop's twin brother) worked in a pool hall
in the forties and I used to go in every day. The 
balls were presumably already pretty old judging
from the appearance as well as the age of the building 
and of the shooters. I can't believe those balls were 
ivory. What do you suppose they were made of? Are there 
any billiard ball historians out there?

Jerry (Ico)

From: "Barry L. Ornitz" <ornitz@dpnet.net>
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics
Subject: Re: Nitrocellulose Products?
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 23:49:50 -0500

Steve wrote in message <369C7009.5C00@hotmail.com>...
>I have recently discovered that 'ping-pong balls' contain
>NITROCELLULOSE.


This is elasticized cellulose nitrate.  When camphor is used as the
plasticizer, it is called celluloid.
Just remember that the propellant and explosive nitrocellulose is the
tri-nitrate (or close to it).  The cellulose nitrate used in celluloid has
a degree of esterification of 2 to 2.4.  It is very flammable but not
nearly as explosive.  The biggest use of this material is in paints and
lacquers for the furniture industry.

Other cellulose esters you may encounter are cellulose acetate (the filter
material in filter cigarettes), and the mixed esters cellulose acetate
propionate and cellulose acetate butyrate (used in eyeglass frames and
screwdriver handles).  These are also used in lacquers and paints.

        Dr. Barry L. Ornitz     ornitz@dpnet.net

From: "Barry L. Ornitz" <ornitz@dpnet.net>
Subject: Re: Nitrocellulose Products?
Date: 13 Jan 1999
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics

Steve wrote in message <369C7009.5C00@hotmail.com>...
>I have recently discovered that 'ping-pong balls' contain
>NITROCELLULOSE.


This is elasticized cellulose nitrate.  When camphor is used as the
plasticizer, it is called celluloid.
Just remember that the propellant and explosive nitrocellulose is the
tri-nitrate (or close to it).  The cellulose nitrate used in celluloid has
a degree of esterification of 2 to 2.4.  It is very flammable but not
nearly as explosive.  The biggest use of this material is in paints and
lacquers for the furniture industry.

Other cellulose esters you may encounter are cellulose acetate (the filter
material in filter cigarettes), and the mixed esters cellulose acetate
propionate and cellulose acetate butyrate (used in eyeglass frames and
screwdriver handles).  These are also used in lacquers and paints.

        Dr. Barry L. Ornitz     ornitz@dpnet.net