Mine is just a guess also, but during the 1870s everyone was getting on the high explosives bandwagon and Alfred Nobel(Swedish) inventor of dynamite, was busy. He began in the mid 1860s w/ Alfred Nobel & Company and Dynamit Nobel was formed in the late 1870s and was somehow associated w/ the British Dynamite Company. He coined the phrase “Progressive” when combined w/ powder in an 1869 patent. And around 1875 Nobel painted a scratch on his hand to prevent infection and later on that day when the paint was exposed to nitro-glycerine he noticed it formed a gel. But he really didn’t get control of it until 1887. Schulzte introduced a smokeless version in 1865 and Volkmann made a discovery dealing w/ nitrocellulose around 1870. And by 1879 the Brits were working pretty hard on the Zulu’s w/ the Gatling guns and I don’t know if they were using Triple Strength(T.S.) or what, but I'll look. Also, local African powders were very poor. So with all that typed, I would guess the “NA” to be something of Nobel's, an English Powder exported to Africa or a combo of both for now. But there was Alliance.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Last edited by ellenbr; 05/01/08 06:07 PM.
