The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

296 SMOKELESS POWDER
at a lower temperature, and produce, with less erosion, substantially
the same ballistic effect as the same weight of powder made
up without mineral jelly. The original cordite Mk. I. contained
guncotton 37%, nitroglycerin 58%, and mineral jelly 5%. This
produced such serious erosion of the guns in the British South
African war that the composition was modified; the relative
amount of nitroglycerin was reduced for the purpose of making
it cooler. Cordite M. D. (modified) consists of guncotton 65%,
nitroglycerin 30%, and mineral jelly 5%.
Mineral jelly in cordite has a distinct stabilizing action. The
material is known to take up nitric oxide in the nitrometer and
to cause a falsely low nitrogen analysis if it is present in the
material which is being analyzed. 9
Any distinction between cordite and ballistite which is based
upon the methods by which the materials are manufactured is
now no longer valid. Certain cordites are made without the use
of a volatile solvent. Ballistites are made from soluble and from
insoluble nitrocellulose, with and without the use of acetone,
ethyl acetate, or other volatile solvent. Cordite is the name of
the propellant which is used by the British armed forces. Ballistite,
generally in flakes, sometimes in cords and in singleperforated
tubes, is the preferred military powder of Italy, Germany,
and the Scandinavian countries.
1891. Charles E. Munroe commenced investigations of smokeless
powder at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode
Island, about 1886, and about 1891 invented indurite. This was
made from guncotton, freed from lower nitrates by washing with
methyl alcohol, and colloided with nitrobenzene. The colloid was
rolled to the desired thickness and cut into squares or strips
which were hardened or indurated by the action of hot water or
steam. Most of the nitrobenzene was distilled out by this treatment,
and the colloid was left as a very hard and tough mass.
Indurite was manufactured which gave satisfactory tests in guns
ranging in caliber from the one-pounder to the six inch. 10
1895-1897. After Munroe's resignation from the Torpedo Station,
Lieutenant John B. Bernadou, U. S. Navy, took up the
9 U. S. Bur. Mines Bull. 96, "The Analysis of Permissible Explosives," by
C. G. Storm, Washington, 1916, p. 44.
10 Ballistic tests are reported in Munroe's interesting article on "The
Development of Smokeless Powder," J. Am. Chem. Soc, 18, 819-846 (1896),