Nitroglycerin
Nitroglicerina
- Date
- 1847 · confidence high
- Place
- Turin, Piedmont, Italy
- Credited to
- Ascanio Sobrero
- People
- 👤 Ascanio Sobrero1812–1888
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
An explosive liquid obtained by nitrating glycerine with nitric and sulphuric acids, far more powerful than gunpowder but dangerously unstable. Its own discoverer warned against its use.
Sobrero was working in Théophile-Jules Pelouze's laboratory in Turin.
What it led to
- The search for a stable explosive: dynamite
- Fatal accidents in transport (1860s) and regulation
- Medical use as a vasodilator (1879)
- High-power explosives in mining and warfare
Built on
- Isolation and characterisation of glycerol1779 (aislamiento de Scheele) / 1823 (caracterización de Chevreul)
- concentrated nitric acid
- Nitrocellulose (Schönbein, 1846)
- Scheele's glycerine