So Poudre B, one of the first smokeless propellants for firearms was made in the 1880s. I'm not a chemist but was most of the chemistry there to create it? How would that change the US civil war. Would trapdoor Springfields or similar be possible . Would tactics during the war. Thanks and discussion welcome.
Could Poudre B have been produced in the 1850s?
- Thread starter cabbit
- Start date
No. They tried, and failed. Nitrocellulose requires really pure acids, or the stuff goes off when you look at it funny.
If you can make Nitroglycerin, you have the quality control for Nitric acid, and the ether and alcohol was before that.
One of the minor issue was getting pure enough water when neutralizing residual acid, rather than the other compounds.
So early nitrocellulose powder is possible before 1860 isn't that hard, an earlier version of Celluloid was patented in 1856, of Nitrocellulose dissolved in Alcohol,then Chloroform, Camphor resin and Castor Oil added for for a mostly stable plastic that can be molded