Ballistite
Ballistite is a
smokeless propellant made from two
high explosives,
nitrocellulose and
nitroglycerin. It was developed and
patented by
Alfred Nobel in the late
19th century.
Gunpowder, or
black powder (Poudre N,
Poudre Noir), as it was also known, was for about a thousand years the only practical propellant. However, there were two major
tactical disadvantages attached to the use of black powder. Firstly, a squad of
soldiers firing volleys would be completely unable to see their targets after a few shots; and secondly, their own location would be obvious because of the huge cloud of white
smoke hanging over them.
In
1886, a
French chemist,
Paul Vieille invented the first
smokeless powder, called
Poudre B (
Poudre Blanche = white powder). It was a great improvement over black powder.
Poudre B was made from two forms of nitrocellulose (
collodion and
guncotton), softened with
ethanol and
ether, and kneaded together. It was three times more powerful than black powder and it did not generate vast quantities of smoke.
The reason that smokeless powders are smokeless is that the
combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to around 60% solid products for black powder, i.e. (
potassium carbonate,
potassium sulfate, etc).
Poudre B was therefore immediately adopted by the French military; but it tended to become unstable over time, as the volatile solvents evaporated, and this led to many accidents, for example two
battleships, the
Jena and the
Liberte blew up in
Toulon harbour in
1907 and
1911, respectively.
Alfred Nobel patented Ballistite in
1887 whilst he was living in
Paris. It was composed of 10%
camphor and equal parts of
nitroglycerin and
collodion. The camphor reacted with any acidic products of the chemical breakdown of the two explosives, but it tended to evaporate over time, leaving a potentially unstable mixture.
His patent specified that the nitrocellulose should be "of the well-known soluble kind". He offered to sell the rights to the new explosive to the
French government, but they declined, largely because they had just adopted Poudre B. He subsequently licensed the rights to the
Italian government, and opened a factory at
Avigliana,
Turin in
1889.
The Italian Army swiftly replaced their M1870 and M1870/87
rifles, which used
black powder cartridges, to a new model, the M1890 Vetterli, which used a cartridge loaded with Ballistite.
As Italy was a competing
Great Power to
France, this was not received well by the French
press and the public. The
newspapers accused Nobel of industrial espionage, by spying on Vieille, and "high treason against France". Following a
police investigation he was refused permission to conduct any more research, or to manufacture explosives in France. He therefore moved to
San Remo in
Italy, in
1891, where he spent the last five years of his life.
Meanwhile, a government committee in
Great Britain, called the "Explosives Committee" and chaired by Sir
Frederick Abel monitored foreign developments in explosives. Abel and Sir
James Dewar, who was also on the committee, jointly patented a modified form of ballistite in
1889. This consisted of 58% nitroglycerin by weight, 37%
guncotton and 5%
vaseline. Using
acetone as a
solvent, it was extruded as
spaghetti-like rods initially called "cord powder" or "the Committee's modification of Ballistite", but this was swiftly abbreviated to
Cordite.
Nobel sued Abel and Dewer over patent infringement; it eventually reached the
House of Lords in
1895 but he lost. The claim was lost because the words "of the well-known soluble kind" in his patent were taken to mean soluble collodion, and to specifically exclude the
water-insoluble guncotton.
Cordite, Ballistite and Poudre B continued to be used in various different armed forces for many years, but Cordite gradually became predominant.
Ballistite is still manufactured as a solid fuel rocket propellant, although the less volatile but chemically similar
diphenylamine is used instead of camphor.
*
Black powder*
Cordite*
Poudre B
