Forest and Stream 
Vol. LXXXIII. 
July 4, 1914 
No. 1 
Evolution of Smokeless Shotgun Powder 
An Instructive Article to The Target Destroyer 
By A. Felix du Pont of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours Powder Co. 
Illustrated by Our Staff Photographer. 
Smokeless powder owes its origin 
to the discovery of guncotton or 
nitro-cellu- 
lose by the 
German chemist, Schon- 
bein, in 1846. Though many 
attempts were made to put this 
substance to practical use in Ger¬ 
many, Austria, France and Eng¬ 
land, they were unsuccessful on ac¬ 
count of failure to render it stable 
and to control its combustion, and 
terrible accidents occurred during 
attempts to manufacture and use it. 
It was not until 1867 that the 
first smokeless powder of any kind 
appeared. This was Schultze 
bulk sporting powder, but it 
was not dependable at first, 
due to lack of knowledge of 
how to overcome difficulties of manufacture and 
also to the imperfect state of development of the 
fire-arms of that period. It was very little used 
until it was improved in the early 8o’s, at which 
time other powders began to appear. On ac¬ 
count of numerous accidents that had occurred 
in the early attempts to manufacture and use 
guncotton, these explosives were not looked upon 
favorably, and for a number of years thereafter 
smokeless powder was only known by name as 
a subsrance over which inventors dreamed and 
which would never take the place of black 
powder. 
In 1888 Alfred Nobel patented his Ballistite, in 
which the control of combustion was brought 
about by gelatinization of nitro-cellulose by nitro- 
glycerin. This produced a powder, the distin¬ 
guishing feature of which was the small amount 
of space occupied for a given amount of poten¬ 
tial energy. Other powders of this type began 
to appear, and the terms “bulk” and “dense” 
were used in distinguishing the Schultze type 
from the latter. These terms have been broad¬ 
ened, and a “bulk” powder is generally under¬ 
stood to mean a powder of light weight which 
takes up about as much space in the cartridge 
as black powder. A “dense” powder is under¬ 
stood to be a powder which takes up about one- 
third of this space, at the same time imparting 
an equal amount of velocity to the shot charge. 
Control of burning of bulk powder was not 
brought about successfully until solvents (other 
that nitroglycerin) for nitro-cellulose were dis¬ 
covered. It was found by Vielle, the French 
chemist, that a number of substances, such as 
ether and alcohol, acetone, acetic ether, etc., 
would dissolve nitro-cellulose and change it from 
a fibrous substance into a horny mass. When 
this principle was applied to Schultze powder by 
spraying the grains with a solvent, its success 
was assured, and the year 1890 found the Schultze 
powder in great demand in this country as well 
as in England. At the same time ammunition 
manufacturers began to turn their attention to 
meeting the change of condition brought about 
by the advent of smokeless powders, and it was 
soon found that many faults supposed to be in¬ 
herent in the powders themselves were correct¬ 
ed by adjusting- the conditions of loading. 
But the sentiment of Americans in favor of 
an American powder was so great that the sports¬ 
man was willing and anxious to try any new 
powder which made its appearance. A number 
of such powders were exploited, but they were 
unsuccessful, and until 1893 there was no Amer¬ 
ican smokeless shotgun powder that could com¬ 
pete with Schultze or Ballistite. In the year 
1890, Francis G. du Pont began his experiments 
with nitro-cellulose and solvents, his primary ob¬ 
ject being to manufacture a new smokeless shot¬ 
gun powder which would be better than any 
that could be obtained at that time. Mr. du 
Pont was General Manager of E. I. du Pont 
de Nemours & Co., a firm which had held the 
highest reputation for manufacture of black 
powder in this country for one hundred years, and 
so completely was he absorbed in the details of 
his work that he found no time during the day 
to carry on his experiments. Consequently he 
erected a private laboratory at his home, and 
there he pursued his investigations almost every 
evening of the week. At the same time he was 
engaged in the construction of a guncotton fac¬ 
tory for making this substance for the use of 
U. S. Navy torpedoes; and he was thus afforded 
an excellent opportunity, after this factory was 
in operation, of putting the results of his labora¬ 
tory experiments to practical test. Many dis¬ 
couragements came to him, however, one being 
the destruction of his laboratory by fire, along 
with all his notes and samples, just as he was 
bringing his smokeless powder to a sufficient de¬ 
gree of perfection to make it a commercial prod¬ 
uct. Mr. du Pont discovered a new principle 
in the gelatinizing and granulation of a bulk 
powder, and he took out a patent on it. The 
difference between this principle and the prin¬ 
ciple by which other bulk powders are made is 
this: Other bulk powders are all made into 
grains either by forcing the wet nitro-cellulose 
through a sieve, thus separating it into particles 
of moderately uniform size, then rolling these 
up by mechanical means and afterward harden¬ 
ing them by spraying on solvent; or by dis¬ 
solving the nitro-cellulose first in a solvent, then 
grinding and cutting the horny mass into grains 
of proper size. But the dug out process consists 
in agitating a solvent insoluble in water with 
a large quantity of water, thus breaking it up 
into a number of little globules such as may be 
seen when oil and water are shaken up in a 
bottle; then the guncotton is put into this liquid 
and each little globule of solvent dissolves some 
of the guncotton, thus making grains very uni¬ 
form in size and consistency, also very hard. So, 
in the year 1893, the first du Pont Shotgun 
Powder began to make its appearance in the 
little green packages, miniature fac-similes of 
the well known black powder keg. So carefully 
(Continued on page 17). 
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Elmer E. Shaner Presenting Interstate Trophy 
to F. S. Wright, W'nner of Eastern 
Handicap. 
/ 
