The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

CHAPTER VI
SMOKELESS POWDER
An account of smokeless powder is, in its main outlines, an
account of the various means which have been used to regulate
the temperature and the rate of the burning of nitrocellulose.
After the degree of nitration of the nitrocellulose, other factors
which influence the character of the powder are the state of
aggregation of the nitrocellulose, whether colloided or in shreds,
the size and shape of the powder grains, and the nature of the
materials other than nitrocellulose which enter into its composition.
Bulk Powder
The first successful smokeless powder appears to have been
made by Captain Schultze of the Prussian Artillery in 1864. At
first he seems only to have impregnated little grains of wood
with potassium nitrate, but afterwards he purified the wood by
washing, boiling, and bleaching, then nitrated it, purified the
nitrated product by a method similar to that which had been
used by von Lenk, and finally impregnated the grains with
potassium nitrate alone or with a mixture of that salt and barium
nitrate. 1 The physical structure of the wood and the fact that
it contained material which was not cellulose both tended to
make the nitrated product burn more slowly than guncotton. The
added nitrates further reduced the rate of burning, but Schultze's
powder was still too rapid for use in rifles. It found immediate
favor for use in shot guns. It was manufactured in Austria by a
firm which in 1870 and 1871 took out patents covering the partial
gelatinization of the powder by treatment with a mixture of ether
and alcohol. The improved powder was manufactured between
1872 and 1875 under the name of Collodin, but the Austrian gov-
1 Brit. Pat. 900 (1864).
287