Volney’s powder

Volney patented in 1874 an expl intended for use in torpedoes contg Mononitronaphthalene 20.8, K nitrate 68.6 and S 10.6%. Another patent (1897) for cannon smokeless powder described the mixing of 86.00 p of dodecanitro-cellulose with 7.82 p of rosaniline or its homologues and 6.18 p of benzene, all dissolved in acetone. According to Ref 3, the production of Nitro-starch started in the USA in about 1888, under the name Volney s Powder ... 

According to Snelling, i starch nitrate was first made in the United States around 1888 as a constituent of Dr. Volney s powder. The du Ponts experimented with starch nitrate as early as 1899, but it was not until 1905 that a plant was erected for its manufacture and use in the non-freezing explosive called Nyalite. The manufacture (by Du Pont) of Arctic starch nitrate explosives was started about 1907, and this explosive was made and sold extensively for a period of more than ten years. Starch nitrate explosives were also made in Canada. The Trojan Powder Co. was manufacturing starch nitrate for commercial blasting in this pre-World War I era. In the construction of the Panama Canal, large amounts of starch nitrate based explosives were used. . . and produced by the Trojan Powder Co. at its Eastern and West Coast plants. This company is at present the principal, if not the sole, source of commercial starch nitrate. 

Vielle poudre, 190. Volney s powder, 148. Von Foster s powder, 191. 

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