ABSTRACT
Saltpetre-based mixtures were first used by Chinese people to propel civil and military rockets from the beginning of the tenth century. These skills were passed through the Arab world to the western European, which appeared on the pyrotechnic scene during the thirteenth century thanks to the development of the gun and of gunpowder, a product known also as ‘black powder’ because of its colour and pulverized consistency. By means of optimizing its composition, increasing the quality of its three ingredients, and above all graining the powder, black powder was greatly improved. The last – but not least – improvement was made at the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century with the American invention of big and hard prismatic grains for large-calibre guns. But shortly before this, European chemists had made revolutionary progress by inventing in the laboratory the nitrocelluloses (the Xyloîdine of the Frenchman Braconnot, 1832; the Coton Nitré of the Frenchman Pelouze, 1838; and Schiesswole of the German Schönbein, 1845) and nitroglycerin (of the Italian Sobrero, 1846). These inventions were quickly followed by the industrial production processes (of the Englishman Abel for guncotton and the Swedish Nobel for nitroglycerin). This enabled the Europeans to invent and produce the modern nitrocellulose-based gunpowders named ‘smokeless powders’. Many developments succeeded one another in Europe during the second half of the nineteenth century, and two main powder types were created.
