The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

246 NITRIC ESTERS
and the liquid on evaporation gave the new acid in the form of
a solid, white, non-crystalline, deliquescent mass of considerably
greater weight than the starch which was taken for the experiment.
Neither carbon dioxide nor oxalic acid was produced
during the reaction, but the new acid on long standing, or on
boiling, with nitric acid was converted to oxalic acid without the
formation of carbon dioxide. Pclouze considered xyloidine to be
a nitrate of starch. He observed that it was readily combustible,
FIGURE 59. Theophile-Jules Pelouze (1807-1867). (Courtesy E. Berl.)
Made many important contributions to organic and inoiganic chemistry—
ethereal salts, the first nitrile, borneol, glyceryl tnbutyrate, pyroxylin,
improvements in the manufacture of plate glass. He nitrated paper in
1838 and was thus probably the first to prepare nitrocellulose. Reproduced
from original in Kekule's portrait album.
that it ignited at a temperature of 180° and burned with very
considerable violence leaving practically no residue. The observation,
he says, led him to make certain experiments which, he
believed, might have practical application in artillery. Paper,
dipped into nitric acid of specific gravity 1.5 and left there long
enough for the acid to penetrate into it (generally 2 or 3 minutes),
removed, and washed thoroughly, gave a parchment-like
material which was impervious to moisture and was extremely
combustible. Pelouze had nitrocellulose in his hands, but evidently
did not recognize that the material, which had not changed
greatly in its physical form, was nevertheless nitrated through-