The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

196 NITRIC ESTERS
built and equipped a modest laboratory of his own. The earliest
printed account of nitroglycerin appears in a letter which Sobrero
wrote to Pelouze and which Pelouze caused to be published in
L'Institut of February 15, 1847. 6 In the same month Sobrero presented
to the Academy of Torino a paper, Sopra alcuni nuovi
composti fulminanti ottenuti col mezzo dell'azione dell'acido
FIGURE 51. Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) First prepared nitroglycerin,
nitromannite, and nitrolactose, 1846-1847.
nitrico sulle sostanze organiche vegetali, 1 in which he described
nitroglycerin, nitromannite, and nitrated lactose. Later in the
year he presented another paper, Sulla Glicerina Fulminante o
Piroglycerina, before the chemistry section of the Ninth Italian
Scientific Congress at Venice. 8
Sobrero found that, if concentrated nitric acid or strong mixed
acid is added to glycerin, a violent reaction ensues and red fumes
6 L'Institut, IS, 53 (1847).
T Mem. Acad. Torino, [2] 10, 195 (1847).
s Proc. Ninth Hal. Sci. Congr., 3, 105 (1848).