For the production of a high-grade gun cotton, it is important that the cotton used should approach as near as possible pure cellulose. The waste from cotton mills, thoroughly purified, is usually employed. After careful chemical examination has been made to ascertain its freedom from grease and other impurities, the cotton waste is picked over by hand to remove such impurities as wood, cardboard, string, etc. The cotton is then passed through the " teasing machine," which opens out all knots and lumps, thereby reducing it to a state more suitable for the acid treatment and exposing to view any foreign substances which may have escaped notice in the previous picking. The cotton is then dried. When perfectly dry, it is removed to air-tight iron cases, in which it is allowed to cool. The iron cases are taken to the dipping houses, and the cotton waste weighed into small portions, which are then transferred as rapidly as possible to the mixed acids, allowed to remain a few minutes, then removed to the grating and the excess of acid squeezed out. The cotton now containing about ten times its weight of acid is placed in an earthenware pot and transferred to the steeping pits, where it is allowed to remain for 24 hours, a low temperature being maintained by a stream of cold water.

The cotton is now wholly converted into nitro-cellulose. The superfluous acid is next removed by a centrifugal extractor, after which the gun cotton is taken out of the machine and immediately immersed in a large volume of water, and thoroughly washed until it shows no acid reaction. The moisture is then run out and the gun cotton is conveyed by tramway to the boiling vats, where it undergoes several boilings by means of steam. When the "heat test" shows that a sufficient degree of stability has been obtained, the gun cotton is removed to a beating engine, and reduced to a very fine state of division, When this process is completed the pulp is run by gravity along wooden shoots, provided with "grit traps" and electromagnets, which catch any traces of sand, iron, etc., into large " poachers," in which the gun cotton is continuously agitated, together with a large quantity of water. In this way it is thoroughly washed and a blend made of a large quantity of gun cotton.