Editing Nitroglycerin (section)

== History ==
Nitroglycerin was the first practical explosive produced that was stronger than [[black powder]]. It was synthesized by the Italian [[chemist]] [[Ascanio Sobrero]] in 1846, working under [[Théophile-Jules Pelouze]] at the [[University of Turin]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sobrero |first=Ascagne |date=1847 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k29812/f247.item.zoom |title=Sur plusieur composés détonants produits avec l'acide nitrique et le sucre, la dextrine, la lactine, la mannite et la glycérine |trans-title=On several detonating compounds produced with nitric acid and sugar, dextrin, lactose, mannitol, and glycerin |journal=Comptes Rendus |volume=24 |pages=247–248}}</ref> Sobrero initially called his discovery ''"pyroglycerin"'' and warned vigorously against its use as an explosive.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sobrero |first=Ascanio |date=1849 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858045931643;view=1up;seq=283 |title=Sopra alcuni nuovi composti fulminanti ottenuti col mezzo dell'azione dell'acido nitrico sulle sostante organiche vegetali |trans-title=On some new explosive products obtained by the action of nitric acid on some vegetable organic substances |journal=Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino |series=2nd Series |volume=10 |pages=195–201}} On p. 197, Sobrero names nitroglycerin "pyroglycerine":
:"Quelle gocciole costituiscono il corpo nuovo di cui descriverò ora le proprietà, e che chiamerò ''Piroglicerina''."  (Those drops constitute the new substance whose properties I will now describe, and which I will call "pyroglycerine".)</ref>

Nitroglycerin was adopted as a commercially useful explosive by [[Alfred Nobel]], who experimented with safer ways to handle the dangerous compound after his younger brother, [[Emil Oskar Nobel]], and several factory workers were killed in an explosion at the Nobels' armaments factory in 1864 in [[Heleneborg]], Sweden.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/industrial/articles/vinterviken/emil.html |website=NobelPrize.org |title=Emil Nobel |access-date=6 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115085417/http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/industrial/articles/vinterviken/emil.html |archive-date=15 January 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

{{stack|[[File:Nobel patent.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alfred Nobel]]'s [[patent application]] from 1864]]}}

One year later, Nobel founded [[Dynamit Nobel AG|Alfred Nobel and Company]] in Germany and built an isolated factory in the Krümmel hills of [[Geesthacht]] near [[Hamburg]]. This business exported a liquid combination of nitroglycerin and [[gunpowder]] called "Blasting Oil", but this was extremely unstable and difficult to handle, as evidenced in numerous catastrophes.<ref name="The Manufacture of High Explosives">{{cite web |last1=Ramsay |first1=Sir William |title=The Manufacture of High Explosives |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-manufacture-of-high-explosives/ |website=Scientific American |date=28 December 1907 |publisher=Springer Nature |access-date=4 March 2024 |ref=Explains the context and process of the manufacturing of NG at Nobel's factories}}</ref> The buildings of the Krümmel factory were destroyed twice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/industrial/articles/krummel/index.html |website=NobelPrize.org |title=Krümmel |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060710005656/http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/industrial/articles/krummel/index.html |archive-date=10 July 2006 }}.</ref>

In April 1866, several crates of nitroglycerin were shipped to [[California]], three of which were destined for the [[Central Pacific Railroad]], which planned to experiment with it as a blasting explosive to expedite the construction of the {{convert|1659|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} [[Donner Pass#Railroad & Donner Pass|Summit Tunnel]] through the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada Mountains]]. One of the remaining crates exploded, destroying a [[Wells Fargo]] company office in [[San Francisco]] and killing 15 people. This led to a complete ban on the transportation of liquid nitroglycerin in California. The on-site manufacture of nitroglycerin was thus required for the remaining hard-rock [[drilling and blasting]] required for the completion of the [[First transcontinental railroad]] in North America.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/peopleevents/e_nitro.html |title=Transcontinental Railroad – People & Events: Nitroglycerin |website=[[American Experience]] |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]}}</ref>

On Christmas Day 1867, an attempt to dispose of nine canisters of Blasting Oil that had been illegally stored at the White Swan Inn in the centre of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]] resulted in an explosion on the Town Moor that killed eight people. In June 1869, two one-ton wagons loaded with nitroglycerin, then known locally as Powder-Oil, exploded in the road at the North Wales village of [[Cwm-y-glo]]. The explosion led to the loss of six lives, many injuries and much damage to the village. Little trace was found of the two horses. The UK Government was so alarmed at the damage caused and what could have happened in a city location (these two tons were part of a larger load coming from Germany via Liverpool) that they soon passed the Nitro-Glycerine Act of 1869.<ref>North Wales Daily Post newspaper of October 14th 2018.</ref> Liquid nitroglycerin was widely banned elsewhere, as well, and these legal restrictions led to Alfred Nobel and his company's developing dynamite in 1867. This was made by mixing nitroglycerin with [[diatomaceous earth]] ("''Kieselguhr''{{-"}} in German) found in the Krümmel hills. Similar mixtures, such as "dualine" (1867), "lithofracteur" (1869), and "[[gelignite]]" (1875), were formed by mixing nitroglycerin with other inert absorbents, and many combinations were tried by other companies in attempts to get around Nobel's tightly held patents for dynamite.

Dynamite mixtures containing [[nitrocellulose]], which increases the viscosity of the mix, are commonly known as "gelatins".

Following the discovery that [[amyl nitrite]] helped alleviate chest pain, the physician [[William Murrell (physician)|William Murrell]] experimented with the use of nitroglycerin to alleviate angina pectoris and to reduce the [[blood pressure]]. He began treating his patients with small diluted doses of nitroglycerin in 1878, and this treatment was soon adopted into widespread use after Murrell published his results in ''[[The Lancet]]'' in 1879.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Murrell |first=William |date=1879 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.d0000772988;view=1up;seq=78 |title=Nitroglycerin as a remedy for angina pectoris |journal=The Lancet |volume=1 |issue=2890 |pages=80–81, 113–115, 151–152, 225–227|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(02)46032-1 |pmc=5901592 }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|last=Sneader |first=Walter |title=Drug Discovery: A History |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |date=2005 |isbn=978-0-471-89980-8}}</ref> A few months before his death in 1896, Alfred Nobel was prescribed nitroglycerin for this heart condition, writing to a friend: "Isn't it the irony of fate that I have been prescribed nitro-glycerin, to be taken internally! They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist and the public."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.txt.asp?a=318|title=History of TNG|website=beyonddiscovery.org|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101101191907/http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.txt.asp?a=318|archive-date=1 November 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The medical establishment also used the name "glyceryl trinitrate" for the same reason.

=== Wartime production rates ===
Large quantities of nitroglycerin were manufactured during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]] for use as military propellants and in [[military engineering]] work. During World War I, [[HM Factory, Gretna]], the largest propellant factory in the [[United Kingdom]], produced about 800 [[tonne]]s of [[Cordite#Cordite RDB|cordite RDB]] per week. This amount required at least 336 tonnes of nitroglycerin per week (assuming no losses in production). The [[Royal Navy]] had its own factory at the [[Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath]], in [[Dorset]], England. A large cordite factory was also built in Canada during World War I. The [[Canadian Industries Limited|Canadian Explosives Limited]] cordite factory at [[Nobel, Ontario]], was designed to produce {{convert|1500000|lb|t|abbr=on}} of cordite per month, requiring about 286 tonnes of nitroglycerin per month.