Report of Experiments on Gunpowder Made at Washington Arsenal in 1843 and 1844

Washington DC: J & G S Gideon, 1845. First Edition. Original publisher's cloth.. Very good; modest wear along the headband of backstrip; overall toning of the text.. 8vo, viii, 328 pp. + folding chart and 6 lithographic plates by Duval of Philadelphia (some double numbered).

A comprehensive series of tests on various size cannon utilizing a ballistic pendulum. Variant compounds of gun powder, modes of manufacture, grain size, hygrometric tests of the compounds as well as types of ignition, 'speed' of the powders etc. were all examined and reported on here. This was among the earliest such scientific research undertaken by the new republic. Looking back at the literature of the subject Mordecai's experiments appear to be the capstone to a generation of such work begun by Proust in Spain in the late eighteenth century. The invention of highly nitrated organic compounds in the subsequent decade was a revolution that superseded the gunpowder era. The author was born in North Carolina of Jewish parents. DAB XIII, 153-154; Riling # 549; Mauskopf, "Chemistry and Cannon ....", Technology and Culture, vol. 31, #3, July 1990.