Ballistite
Ballistite was invented in 1887 by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel as a further development of the explosive gelatine . It is the first high-energy, low-smoke powder for guns that could replace the previously used black powder in these weapons. The handguns, however, remained a domain of the pure nitrocellulose powder invented shortly before after the French Paul Vieille , which developed less energy and was therefore gentle on the barrels.
Ballistite burns just the slow rate needed to propel a projectile without causing excessive pressure in the gun barrel.
Nobel invented it in collaboration with English professors Frederick Augustus Abel and James Dewar . The latter abused Nobel's trust and also registered a low-smoke powder under the name Cordit , which has a similar composition. This led to a patent dispute between Nobel and the English, which the Swede lost in all instances because he had defined nitrocellulose too imprecisely in his claims.
- composition
- 49% glycerol trinitrate
- 49% cellulose nitrate
- 2% diphenylamine (stabilizer)
literature
- John Baptiste Bernadou: Smokeless powder, nitro-cellulose and theory of the cellulose molecule. ISBN 978-1-103-12711-5
- BG Chemie (editor): M 037 - Nitrocellulose. ISBN 978-3-86825-039-8
- R. Biedermann: The explosives, their chemistry and technology. Second edition, BG Teubner Verlag, Leipzig / Berlin 1917.
Web links
- Alfred Nobel and the discovery of dynamite with special consideration of ethical issues in natural science (accessed on May 11, 2020)
- History of Explosives (accessed May 11, 2020)
- Guns and explosives (accessed May 11, 2020)
- Some of the chemistry and technology of explosions and explosives. (accessed on May 11, 2020)