What was the motivator for developing smokeless powder? And how did old battlefields play a role? Well, we’ve dug up the answers for you right here!
In The Beginning
The Chinese invented the earliest known explosive, gunpowder, which was first used in warfare around the year 1350. Gunpowder’s components are relatively simple: 75 percent potassium-nitrate, 13 percent carbon, and 12 percent sulfur. After being pulverized, the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Originally, this was known as black powder and was a volatile substance.
Sulfur, which is commonly found in gardening stores, lowers the temperature to increase the rate of combustion. It also acts as a fuel. The carbon, or charcoal, acts as another fuel. Potassium nitrate is also known as saltpeter. It can be found in bat guano. These days, it’s produced commercially. It helps the carbon burn faster by introducing oxygen.
Over time, it was discovered the rate of burning and explosion could be controlled by caking the gunpowder into grains or pellets. This played a role in the development of firearms.
The Cons of Black Powder
Black powder produces huge volumes of smoke. When you amass hundreds — even thousands — of shooters using black powder weapons, the collective smoke is tremendous. That smoke hangs like a fog on the battlefield — especially if the air is still.
The ensuing cloud of smoke is one of the factors that influenced battlefield tactics in the old days. Armies had a difficult time seeing each other, so they had to move in close. Another factor was muskets were smooth bore. As a result, they weren’t accurate at extended ranges.
Other negative aspects of black powder are it causes a lot of fouling in the weapons. Because black powder is corrosive, firearms required cleaning shortly after firing them. Finally, a weapon firing from a concealed position, but using black powder, was easily pinpointed on the battlefield.
The Advent Of Smokeless Powder – Oops!
Smokeless powder was discovered quite literally by accident. One day in 1845, Christian Friedrich Schonbein, a professor of chemistry at the University of Basel, was messing around with a vial of of nitric acid that spilled onto the kitchen table. He was worried about his wife’s reaction, so he mopped up the mess with a cotton apron. Schonbein then placed the soaked apron near the kitchen stove to dry. He was pleased with himself until the apron exploded.
The following August, Professor Schonbein addressed a gathering of scientists about his new technique of treating cotton with nitric and sulfuric acids. This nitrocellulose was soon referred to as “gun cotton.”
Advantages of Gun Cotton
Army officer Alfred Mordecai conducted tests and noted gun cotton seemed to produce an effect equal to about twice the weight of good rifle black powder. An unforeseen benefit of this invention was increased muzzle velocities, which topped 2,000 feet per second with military shoulder arms. In comparison, the Brown Bess musket, invented in the first half of the 18th century, had a muzzle velocity between 900 to 1,350 feet per second.
Another benefit of gun cotton was it raised the weapon’s barrel temperature at lower rates compared to black powder. Using regular powder, a rifle barrel heated up to 144 degrees Fahrenheit after firing 44 rounds. After 75 rounds with gun cotton, the temperature only reached 128 degrees.
Aside from that, British researchers figured out a wad of gun cotton could be submerged in water for 60 hours and, once it was dried out, still retained its flammable traits and strengths. While black powder had to be kept completely dry to work, gun cotton could be moistened and transported with zero risk of a spark igniting it. Consequently, armies could now fight in rainy, damp conditions, which gave them additional operating capabilities.
As if all of these virtues were not enough, it turned out gun cotton was virtually smokeless. Rather than billowing clouds of smoke, it only created a slight amount of smoke with a bluish haze that dissipated rapidly.
Trouble In Paradise
It turned out firearms of the period couldn’t handle the additional pressures that gun cotton created. These pressures caused burst barrels, exploded breeches, and ruined rifle grooves — and that wasn’t all. The process of making gun cotton proved dangerous with several factories blowing up. Dozens of people died. By 1850, Europe had almost totally banned gun cotton production.
Producing gun cotton was far more complicated than making black powder. It’s parts had to be bound together in a laboratory by skilled technicians using special equipment and chemicals. Processing took at least three weeks of monitoring and purifying. It then had to go through another series of procedures: refining, grinding, sieving, drying, seasoning, blending, and packaging.
Progress Towards Smokeless Powder
A French military chemist named Paul Vielle made the next big leap forward by inventing Poudre B. Poudre B was gun cotton gelatinized by ether-alcohol and shaped into small slabs so it could be loaded into cartridges. Poudre B slowed the fast burn rate of gun cotton, which reduced the high pressure. This made it viable as a smokeless powder for arms.
Following this, the French introduced the Lebel rifle, which was specifically made to work with Poudre B. It was the first smokeless weapon and kicked off a world-wide arms race. Each country developed their own new smokeless rifles, advancing firearms design drastically.
Smokeless Powder Changes the Battlefield
With the development of smokeless powder, armies were no longer ensconced in thick smoke clouds that practically made them shoot blindly. Rifles evolved into smaller calibers with faster velocities. Furthermore, they could now hold more ammunition. Fast firing and reloading became the name of the game. Now that weapons fired faster, ammunition expenditures increased as well. By the time World War I concluded in 1918, America was producing 525,000 pounds of smokeless powder per day.
Because rifles were now far more deadly, uniforms also changed. Armies no longer dressed their troops in bright uniforms. Instead, khakis, grays, and olive drab were used to help camouflage their troops. No longer would massed formations of troops face each other in neat ranks, slugging it out in full view of each other on the battlefield. Military doctrine changed necessarily to reflect these modern battlefield advancements.
Parting Shots
Mankind has always been driven to improve upon new technologies and inventions. The battlefield often drives these improvements and gunpowder was no exception. An accident sparked the movement (no pun intended) from black powder to smokeless powder. However, it was far more than merely Christian Schonbein’s accident in the kitchen. Were it not for many more people capitalizing on that and forging ahead, smokeless powder never would have happened.
The immeasurable amount of hours that went into the evolution of smokeless powder and subsequent development of weapons is staggering. All of that combined effort worked to change the face of the battlefield forever.
