Alfred Nobel, while living in Paris, patents…

Alfred Nobel, while living in Paris, patents and introduces ballistite, a smokeless propellant made from two high explosives, nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine, in 1887.

His formulation is composed of ten percent camphor and equal parts of nitroglycerine and collodion.

The camphor reacts with any acidic products of the chemical breakdown of the two explosives.

This both stabilizes the explosive against further decomposition and prevents spontaneous explosions.

Camphor tends to evaporate over time, however, leaving a potentially unstable mixture.