“Yes, I am aware of that,” Lee said, remembering the tiny cylindrical grains of powder Gorgas had shown him at the Confederate Armory more than a year before. “I decided to come here before returning to the capital for two reasons: first, to learn what progress if any you have made toward duplicating that powder, and, second, if your progress has been small, to find out whether these cartridges may be reloaded with powder and bullets of our own manufacture.”
“Captain Finney and I have pursued these investigations on parallel tracks,” Rains said. “If I may, I would prefer that he speak to your second question first, as his results have been less problematical than mine.”
“However would prove most convenient for you, of course.” Lee turned to Finney. “Captain?”
“I’ve never been handed a more interesting problem, sir,” the arsenal superintendent said. He sounded enthusiastic at facing such a challenge, which made Lee nod in approval. Enthusiastic still, Finney continued, “I can’t tell you how much I admire the Rivington men, either. They must have forgotten more about gunsmithing than any twelve gunsmiths know.”
That might be nothing but literal truth, Lee thought. Aloud, he said, “I also admire their ability with firearms, Captain.” What he thought of them in other respects was irrelevant to the issue at hand. “Please carry on.”
“Yes, sir. I gather you know these AK-47 cartridges have their percussion primers on the inside, not in separate caps the way, say, Minié balls do.” Finney waited for Lee to nod again. “You may not know that all the primers have the same shape, to ignite the powder in just the same way every time—really marvelously clever.”
“I did not know that,” Lee admitted.
“I’ve not been able to duplicate the effect, either,” Finney said. “By replacing the expended primer with a dab of the mixture of fulminate of mercury and the other substances used in percussion caps, then inserting rather less gunpowder into the case than the powder previously found there, I have achieved by trial and error a load that will fire from the AK-47.”
“Excellent, Captain,” Lee breathed.
Colonel Rains said, “He makes light of the danger he underwent in what he so casually calls ‘trial and error,’ General. He would allow no one but himself to test the loads; only the sturdiness of the AK-47 more than once prevented serious injury when a load proved too heavy. Two of the repeaters did in fact burst in the early days of his experiments, both, fortunately, while being fired from a rest by means of a cord.”
Finney dismissed Rains’s praise with a shrug. “It’s not as if I were fighting, or anything of the sort. In any event, my loads are still makeshifts compared to the originals. Our gunpowder fouls the barrel much worse than that which is proper for the repeaters, which is an especially significant difficulty because some of the gas provides the force used to draw each successive round into the chamber. One rifle fired repeatedly with my loads became so foul it would no longer do so; the charging handle had to be employed to clear the chamber after each shot.”
“That would make the weapons, at worst, the equivalent, say, of a Henry repeater,” Lee said musingly. “Still highly useful, in other words. You have done well, Captain. I presume you are also producing your own bullets?”
“Yes, sir, and they’re not as good as the originals, either—Colonel Rains tells me Colonel Gorgas explained to you about the fouling problem from good old plain lead without any fancy copper nightshirt.”
“So he did, though not in quite those terms.” Lee let amusement show in his voice. “Your loads will shoot, though. That is the important concern.”
Charles Marshall said, “You can load spent cartridges, Captain, and you can reproduce the bullets that go into them. Can you also manufacture new cartridge cases?” Lee leaned forward in his seat to hear Finney’s reply. If the Confederacy could produce its own ammunition, that would be a long step forward on the road to independence from the Rivington men.
“I’ve not been able to do it yet,” Finney said, and Lee knew his face fell. But the captain went on, “I’ve not given up, either. Before we got to know the AK-47, we Southerners didn’t have much to do with repeaters or with turning out any kind of brass cartridges. Now that we’re at peace with the U.S.A. again, I expect we’ll be able to license a setup from the people who make ammunition for the Henry or one of the other Northern repeaters. Once I have the tools, maybe I’ll be able to jigger ‘em to turn out these cartridge cases instead. I aim to try, anyway.”
“Thank you, Captain, for your courage and your energy,” Lee said sincerely. “If you’ve not made all the progress for which you might have hoped, you have made a good deal. Only in novels is the hero commonly fortunate enough to discover everything he requires to save the day at the precise instant he requires it.”
“That’s the truth, by God!” George Rains said. “I hope, General, that you’ll grant me the same forbearance you’ve given Captain Finney, not least because I stand more in need of it.”
“Tell me what you have learned,” Lee said. “Let me judge, though I am already confident you have done your utmost.”
“I sometimes wonder,” Rains said. “I was proud of my knowledge of chemistry until I began investigating the powder the AK-47 uses as propellant. Now my feelings are closely similar to those expressed by Captain Finney: I have been shown how much I do not know. The realization is galling.”
“This is a remark I have heard repeatedly in connection with the Rivington men and their products,” Lee said, adding to himself, and I know why, too. “Suppose you tell me now what you have found out, and leave the enigmas for another time.”
“Thank you, sir,” Rains said gratefully. “Almost twenty years ago, a German named Schonbein produced an explosive by steeping cotton fibers in strong nitric acid.”
Lee raised an eyebrow. “You don’t say. There is a use for cotton I had not imagined. Some in our country have called it king, but none dreamed it could be a munition of war. Were you exploring that possibility here before you began receiving AK-47 cartridges?”
“No, sir,” Rains answered at once, and in emphatic tones. “The stuff has always been too temperamental for any sane man to want to use—till now. One of the constituents of AK-47 powder is a nitrocellulose. I have confirmed this both by chemical means and by examination of the powder under a glass; the appearance of the cotton remains almost unaltered despite exposure to the acid. But somehow, perhaps in the purification process, its explosive properties have been rendered far more reliably consistent than those of the product with which l—and the world—was previously familiar.”
“This appears to be considerable progress, Colonel,” Lee said. “My congratulations.”
“I don’t feel I merit them, sir.” Rains made a sour face. “I have some idea of what the powder does and of its ingredients, but none at present as to how I might duplicate the effect for myself. Nor is this treated cotton its sole constituent part: more than half of it is another nitrogenous compound, one which I believe to have a chemical affinity to glycerine.”
“A—nitroglycerine, you might say?” Of itself, Lee’s hand went to the waistcoat pocket which held the vial of small white pills from the Rivington men.
Rains beamed at him. “Exactly, General! I had not thought you so chemically astute, if you will forgive my saying so.”
“Of course,” Lee said abstractedly. He wondered if his pills were liable to blow a hole in his jacket when he least expected it, and wondered also whether the men from America Will Break hoped they would. It seemed a clumsy way to try to get rid of a man. Besides, the little pills really did relieve the pains in his chest. He decided that, since they had resided in his pocket for more than a year without detonating of their own accord, they could probably be relied upon to remain intact. Gathering his wits, he said, “Have you sought to manufacture any of this, ah, nitroglycerine for yourself?”