P. Gerald (Percy Gerald) Sanford

P. Gerald Sanford, identified in library and ebook records as Percy Gerald Sanford, is known today for Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise. Catalog and digitized-book sources show the work appeared in the 1890s and later in a revised and enlarged second edition in 1906, suggesting it had enough value to be updated and reissued.

The book itself is a technical manual on nitrated substances, including fulminates, smokeless powders, and celluloid. Modern summaries and catalog descriptions consistently present it as a practical reference aimed at readers who needed detailed information about the properties, manufacture, and analysis of explosive materials.

Reliable biographical details about Sanford beyond his name and this book are hard to confirm from readily available sources, so it is safest to describe him as a technical writer or specialist remembered primarily through this surviving publication.