Larry;
When it comes to advertizing its not for me to determine "WHY" but to simply state the facts. I quoted to you Verbatim from Alliant's own publication where the promoted AS as giving better patterns & reduced recoil than a "Typical Fast Burning Powder", which Larry was Red Dot. In fact I quoted to you from the same publication where they stated RD had produced more 100 straights than all other powders combined. As to why they felt they needed another powder sandwiched in between RD & GD I have no idea not having ESP. The fact is they indeed introduced one. Undoubtably they had invested considerable time & $$$ in that development & wanted to re-coup that investment. What better way to insure acceptable sales than a ""REDUCED RECOIL"" promotion. Further "I DID NOT SAY" that Aliant had any notion of discontinuing sales of RD. I have no idea if they even considered it or not, but they ABSOLUTELY DID ADVERTISE AMERICAN SELECT AS GIVING LESS ""FELT"" RECOIL. The Burma Shave reference was just a non-shooting reference. From 1929-1963 American roadsides were dotted with there catchy litte signs, many of which promoted, their Cream as being "VASTLY SUPERIOR" to the old traditional soap & brush method. Yet during that same exact time frame they also sold sets consisting of a mug, brush & cake of soap, items they vigorously promoted as being totally obsoleted by their Superior product. You have made a large number of very good an educated posts on this forum Larry, but none of them I can think of were related to things of a mechanical nature, but history, models etc such as the one just recently on the French Guild gun.
As to Thomas if he had no more details on the IMI test than he gave to his readers, the best he could have done would have been to kept his mouth shut about it. "IF" on the otherhand he knew them but didn't reveal them that is total "DISHONESTY".
There was a reduction in recoil when going first from BP to bulk smokeless which equiv charge weighed about half as much & again when switching from the bilk to dense smokeless which again cut powder wt by approx half. The were reductions which couold be both "Felt" & "Measured" but the reduction was not so much speed of burn related as it was wt of charge. Over those 50+ years of reading ballistic related items the method of reducing "Felt Recoil" has always been stated to go to a "Slower" burm rate ""ALWAYS"" except for "You & Your Idol". Can you quote any other source which agrees with that stance, & don't try Alliant again, I have already shown their stance takes the opposite tack. Your remarks on their advertizing shows you either have no understanding of ad techniques either or are just too stubborn & hard headed to admit them.

Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra