The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

EARLY HISTORY OF NITRATED CARBOHYDRATES 247
out its mass, for he believed that the products which he obtained
from paper and from cotton and linen fabrics owed their new
properties to the xyloidine which covered them.
1846. Schonbein announced his discovery of guncotton at a
meeting of the Society of Scientific Research at Basel on May 27,
1846. In an article, probably written in 1847 but published in the
Archives des sciences physiques et naturelles of 1846, he described
some of his experiences with the material and his efforts
FIGURE 60. Christian Friedrich Schonbein (1799-1868). (Courtesy E.
Berl.) Discovered guncotton, 1846. Discovered ozone, worked on hydrogen
peroxide, auto-oxidation, the passivity of iron, hydrosulfites, catalysts, and
prussic acid. Professor of Chemistry at Basel from 1829 until the time of
his death. He published more than 300 papers on chemical subjects.
Reproduced from original in Kekul6's portrait album.
to put it to practical use and discussed the controversial question
of priority of discovery; he described the nitration of cane sugar
but deliberately refrained from telling how he had prepared his
nitrocellulose. He was led to perform the experiments by certain
theoretical speculations relative to ozone which he had discovered
a few years before. One volume of nitric acid (1.5) and 2 volumes
of sulfuric acid (1.85) were mixed and cooled to 0°, finely powdered
sugar was stirred in so as to form a paste, the stirring was
continued, and after a few minutes a viscous mass separated from
the acid liquid without the disengagement of gas. The pasty mass
was washed with boiling water until free from acid, and was