284 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



In 1882 Mr. Walter F. Keid patented " the agglomeration of nitro- 

 cellulose into grains and moistening them with ether alcohol for the 

 purpose of hardening the grains. I had the advantage of seeingf this 

 manufacture and some experiments with this powder in 1883, in which 

 year also Oscar Wolff and Max von Forster published and patented ^ 

 the method of coating small cubes of gun cotton with a solvent for 

 the purpose of keeping them permanently moist. Mr. Reid's powder 

 is manufactured under the name of E. C. powder, and is still a favor- 

 ite sporting powder, but, being what is now called a bulk powder, 

 namel}^, a powder of very loose structure and low volumetric density, 

 it was too violent in its effects for military rifles, while for sporting 

 rifles it was just the right thing. I would again mention here that in 

 the beginning of 188G I suggested to Professor Hebler, the well- 

 known Swiss pioneer of the small-bore rifle, the use of a piece of blast- 

 ing gelatin as a charge for a rifle cartridge," but that the very idea 

 frightened him, although he wished to have a pellet of compressed 

 gun cotton from me for the purpose. Vieille in 1886 '^ thoroughly 

 gelatinized nitrocellulose and made sheets of it, which he cut up in 

 strips or small lozenge-like squares. This was the first military 

 smokeless powder. It has been said that Vieille made his discovery 

 while trying to make a bulk powder similar to E. C. powder, but I 

 have it from him that his invention was the outcome of prolonged 

 study and experiment. 



This impartial survey shows that while the merit of making the 

 first powder-like material from a nitro compound belongs to Hartig, 

 and while Schultze made the first commercial powder, yet the inven- 

 tion of a gelatinized powder in the modern sense must be attributed to 

 Friedrich Volkmann, although, independently of him, Reid rediscov- 

 ered, twelve years later, a hardened sporting powder, and Vieille, six- 

 teen years later, a thoroughly gelatinized military powder. 



Nitroglycerin-nitrocellulose powder was invented by Alfred Nobel 

 in 1888,'' who gave it the name of ballistite. The British Government 

 adopted a powder which contained insoluble gun cotton with nitro- 

 glycerin and vaseline, the whole being dissolved in acetone.'' Ballis- 

 tite is the service powder in Italy and is much used for large guns. 

 Aniline is now added, and it is claimed both for vaseline, aniline, and 

 diphenylamine that they exert a great stabilizing influence on the 

 powder. 



o British patent No. G19, of 1SS2. 



6 Id., No. 3866, of 1883. 



".Journal of the Society of Cheniic-il Indusliy, 1S!)4, p. r»T5. 



^Memorial ties Pondres et Salpetres, 1.SiH>, p. <). 



e British patent No. 1471, of 1888. 



f Id., No. 5014, of 1SS9. 



