Smokeless Powder; Nitro- Powder
Modern powder inside pistol and rifle cartridges is called smokeless
powder or nitro powder.
Military commanders had been complaining since the Napoleonic
Wars about the problems of giving orders on a battlefield that was swathed
in thick smoke from the gunpowder used by the guns. (A problem we still have
today in some competitions using black powder is seeing the target for the
smoke!)
A major step forward was introduced when guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based
propellant, was widely introduced in 1846. Guncotton was more powerful than
gunpowder, but at the same time was somewhat more volatile. This made it unsuitable
as a propellant for small firearms. (It blew them up!)
In 1886 Paul Vieille invented
a smokeless gunpowder called Poudre B. Made from gelatinized nitrocellulose
mixed with ether and alcohol, it was passed through rollers to form thin
sheets, which were cut with a guillotine to flakes of the desired size. Vielle's
powder
was used in the Lemel rifle that was adopted by the French Army in the late
1880s.
In 1887 Alfred Nobel also developed a smokeless gunpowder. This
eventually became known as cordite, a powder easier to handle and more powerful
than Poudre B.
Smokeless powder can be single, double or triple based. Single
based smokeless powder consists of nitrocellulose only. Double based powders
are nitrocellulose combined with up to 50 percent
nitroglycerin. Triple base powders contain nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin and
nitroguanidine. The powder is corned into small spherical balls or extruded
into cylinders
or flakes using
solvents
such
as
ether. Other minor ingredients, such as stabilizers and ballistic modifiers,
are also added.
For more detail see wikipedia.org from
which the above is acknowledged to be extracted.
Page created 17th May 2006
Page last saved
26-Aug-2006 8:33
