Alfred Nobel's “Ballistite” Dense Smokeless was introduced in 1887, patented in 1888, then “Sporting Ballistite” (for shotgun shells) was patented in 1889, but not released to the trade by Nobel’s Explosive Co. until 1895.
DuPont began marketing “Ballistite” in 1909 and discontinued the powder in 1927.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23787093Paul Vieille tested in the 1880's smokeless Cordite and Ballistite, in addition to his own poudre B. This is reported in his 1893 publication a major source for past and recent research, leading to questions about early powder developments. The following are the major questions addressed in this essay and their speculative answers, based on the original publication and additional sources:
(a) Were Vieille and the French powder establishment knowledgeable about other options when developing poudre B during 1884-1886? It seems that they were knowledgeable about methods to increase powder energy as was done later in Ballistite and Cordite, yet chose poudre B;
(b) Did they regard Alfred Nobel and his smokeless Ballistite as rivals to poudre B, before or immediately after Nobel's 1887 patent in France? One famous Nobel biography claims that Ballistite was technically better and seen as a rival to poudre B. But this is unlikely since the French powder establishment considered Ballistite's high barrel erosion as a genuine obstacle and almost totally refrained from such powders until 1918;
(c) Vieille tested two Ballistite samples,
one from Spain and what seems to be a later one from Italy, yet did not report test dates. The samples contained aniline, a stabilizer in Italian Ballistite from 1889, approximately. Nobel's activities closed down in France in 1889 leading one to suppose that the samples weres sent in 1889. Yet Spanish activities in 1889 are known to have come only after Italy. Establishing an exact date would illuminate
Nobel's Ballistite activities in Spain and the time when Vieille made his famous conclusion that all nitrocellulose based powders burn in layers.
