Guncotton

The first new explosive since gunpowder announced itself through domestic accident. In 1846, Christian Friedrich Schönbein was experimenting with acids in the kitchen of his Basel home when he spilled a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid on the table. Reaching for the nearest cloth—a cotton apron—he wiped up the mess and hung the apron on the stove door to dry. When dry, the apron burst into flames with a brilliant flash, leaving no smoke. Schönbein had created nitrocellulose, and immediately recognized its military potential.

The chemistry was straightforward in principle but deceptive in practice. Treating cellulose fibers with concentrated nitric acid (using sulfuric acid as a catalyst) replaced hydrogen atoms with nitrate groups, creating a material that burned with explosive speed. Where gunpowder required external oxygen to combust, guncotton carried its oxidizer within its molecular structure. The result was an explosive six times more powerful than black powder, producing far less smoke.

Convergent discovery was inevitable given the chemistry's accessibility. In the same year, Rudolf Christian Böttger in Frankfurt and F.J. Otto in Brunswick independently produced the same substance. Otto published first, denying Schönbein the priority he sought. But Schönbein's demonstration captured public imagination, and his name became permanently associated with the discovery.

Precursors existed. Henri Braconnot had created xyloïdine from nitrated starch in 1832. Théophile-Jules Pelouze (teacher of both Alfred Nobel and nitroglycerin discoverer Ascanio Sobrero) had treated paper with nitric acid in 1838. But Schönbein's cotton-based formulation proved most explosive and attracted commercial interest immediately.

The rush to commercialization produced catastrophe. John Hall & Sons obtained manufacturing rights in 1846 and built a factory at Faversham, Kent. On July 14, 1847—barely a year after Schönbein's discovery—a batch detonated, destroying two buildings and killing 21 workers. Similar disasters struck factories in France, Russia, and Germany. Guncotton production ceased entirely for over fifteen years.

The problem was instability. Nitrocellulose retained traces of acid that slowly degraded the material, eventually triggering spontaneous detonation. Frederick Augustus Abel solved this in 1865 through prolonged washing and careful manufacturing controls. His stabilized guncotton could be stored safely and handled without constant fear of accidental explosion.

The applications cascaded. Collodion—nitrocellulose dissolved in ether—became the basis for wet-plate photography. In 1889, Abel and James Dewar combined guncotton with nitroglycerin and petroleum jelly to create cordite, the smokeless propellant that armed British military forces for half a century. Celluloid, early motion picture film, and modern lacquers all derive from nitrocellulose chemistry.

Schönbein himself discovered ozone in 1839 and spent his career at Basel studying diverse chemical phenomena. His kitchen accident created an industry that produces about 27,000 tonnes of nitrocellulose annually today—a demonstration that the most consequential discoveries sometimes begin with household cleanup.