Editing Frederick Abel (section)

==Notable work==
One of the most important of his investigations had to do with the manufacture of [[guncotton]], and he developed a process, consisting essentially of reducing the nitrated cotton to fine pulp,<ref name="Greenwood-1999" /> which enabled it to be safely manufactured and at the same time yielded the product in a form that increased its usefulness. This work to an important extent prepared the way for the "[[smokeless powder]]s" which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century; [[cordite]], the type adopted by the British government in 1891, was invented jointly by him and Sir [[James Dewar]].<ref name="Greenwood-1999" /> He and Dewar were unsuccessfully sued by [[Alfred Nobel]] over infringement of Nobel's patent for a similar explosive called [[ballistite]], the case finally being resolved in the [[House of Lords]] in 1895. He also extensively researched the behaviour of [[black powder]] when ignited, with the Scottish [[physicist]] Sir [[Sir Andrew Noble, 1st Baronet|Andrew Noble]]. At the request of the [[British government]], he devised the [[Abel test]], a means of determining the [[flash point]] of petroleum products.<ref name="Greenwood-1999" /> His first instrument, the open-test apparatus, was specified in an [[Act of Parliament]] in 1868 for officially specifying petroleum products. It was superseded in August 1879 by the much more reliable Abel close-test instrument.<ref name="Greenwood-1999" /> Under his leadership, first, guncotton was developed at [[Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills]], patented in 1865, then, the propellant cordite, patented in 1889. In electricity, Abel studied the construction of electrical [[Fuse (electrical)|fuse]]s and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes.