Editing Nitroglycerin (section)

== Use as an explosive and a propellant ==
{{Main|Dynamite|Ballistite|Cordite|smokeless powder|Gelignite}}
Nitroglycerin is an oily liquid that explodes when subjected to heat, shock, or flame. The main use of nitroglycerin, by [[tonnage]], is in explosives such as dynamite and in propellants as an ingredient. However, its sensitivity has limited the usefulness of nitroglycerin as a military explosive; less sensitive explosives such as [[TNT]], [[RDX]], and [[HMX]] have largely replaced it in munitions.

[[Alfred Nobel]] developed the use of nitroglycerin as a blasting explosive by mixing nitroglycerin with inert [[Absorption (chemistry)|absorbent]]s, particularly "''Kieselgur''", or [[diatomaceous earth]]. He named this explosive dynamite and [[patented]] it in 1867.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventions/a/Alfred_Nobel.htm|title=Alfred Nobel and the History of Dynamite|first=Mary|last=Bellis|work=About.com Money|access-date=10 November 2009|archive-date=28 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828185843/https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-dynamite-1991564|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was supplied ready for use in the form of sticks, individually wrapped in greased waterproof paper. Dynamite and similar explosives were widely adopted for [[civil engineering]] tasks, such as in drilling [[highway]] and [[railroad]] [[tunnel]]s, for [[mining]], for clearing farmland of stumps, in [[quarrying]], and in [[demolition|demolition work]]. Likewise, [[military engineer]]s have used dynamite for construction and demolition work.

Nitroglycerin has been used in conjunction with [[hydraulic fracturing]], a process used to recover [[crude oil|oil]] and [[natural gas|gas]] from [[shale]] formations. The technique involves displacing and detonating nitroglycerin in natural or hydraulically induced fracture systems, or displacing and detonating nitroglycerin in hydraulically induced fractures followed by wellbore shots using pelletized [[trinitrotoluene|TNT]].<ref name="recovery">{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=J. S.|last2=Johansen|first2=R. T.|date=1976|title=Fracturing Oil Shale with Explosives for In Situ Recovery.|journal=Shale Oil, Tar Sand and Related Fuel Sources|pages=151|bibcode=1976sots.rept...98M|url=https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/19_2_LOS%20ANGELES_04-74__0060.pdf|access-date=27 March 2015|archive-date=2 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002204137/https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/19_2_LOS%20ANGELES_04-74__0060.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Nitroglycerin has an advantage over some other high explosives that on detonation it produces practically no visible smoke. Therefore, it is useful as an ingredient in the formulation of various kinds of [[smokeless powder]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/environmental/html/nitroglyc_text.htm|title=Nitroglycerin}}</ref>

Alfred Nobel then developed [[ballistite]], by combining nitroglycerin and [[guncotton]]. He patented it in 1887. Ballistite was adopted by a number of European governments, as a military propellant. Italy was the first to adopt it. The British government and the Commonwealth governments adopted [[cordite]] instead, which had been developed by Sir [[Frederick Abel]] and Sir [[James Dewar]] of the United Kingdom in 1889. The original Cordite Mk&nbsp;I consisted of 58% nitroglycerin, 37% guncotton, and 5.0% [[petroleum jelly]]. Ballistite and cordite were both manufactured in the form of "cords".

Smokeless powders were originally developed using nitrocellulose as the sole explosive ingredient. Therefore, they were known as single-base propellants. A range of smokeless powders that contains both nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, known as double-base propellants, were also developed. Smokeless powders were originally supplied only for military use, but they were also soon developed for civilian use and were quickly adopted for sports. Some are known as sporting powders. Triple-base propellants contain nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and [[nitroguanidine]], but are reserved mainly for extremely high-caliber ammunition rounds such as those used in tank cannons and [[naval artillery]]. Blasting gelatin, also known as [[gelignite]], was invented by Nobel in 1875, using nitroglycerin, [[wood pulp]], and [[sodium nitrate|sodium]] or [[potassium nitrate]]. This was an early, low-cost, flexible explosive.