When was nitroglycerin made

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Funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research projects. ACS-Hach Programs Learn about financial support for future and current high school chemistry teachers. Nitroglycerin, formally 1,2,3-propanetriol trinitrate, is a venerable explosive and, in small doses, a life-saving drug. After numerous accidents, the manufacture and distribution of the pure liquid was soon banned in many jurisdictions.

Recognizing the potential usefulness of nitroglycerin, Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel sought to make a practical explosive formulation that could be handled reasonably safely. In , he invented dynamite, a mixture of nitroglycerin and sorbents such as diatomaceous earth. He soon developed methods for dynamite manufacture, obtained patents in several countries, and marketed his product.

The wealth he amassed allowed him to establish the eponymous prizes in several fields of endeavor. Soon after he discovered nitroglycerin, Sobrero and others found that tasting the substance caused intense headaches.

In those days, chemists often sampled newly prepared compounds, sometimes with disastrous results. Constantin Hering, in , tested NG in healthy volunteers, observing that headache was caused with 'such precision'. Hering pursued NG 'glonoine' as a homeopathic remedy for headache, believing that its use fell within the doctrine of 'like cures like'. Alfred Nobel joined Pelouze in and recognized the potential of NG. He began manufacturing NG in Sweden, overcoming handling problems with his patent detonator.

The solution he devised was a small wooden detonator with a black powder charge that was placed in a metal container full of nitroglycerin. When it was lit and exploded, the liquid nitroglycerin would also explode. A few years later, in , he invented the blasting cap, which replaced the wooden detonator.

This early period of experimentation cost Nobel his factory, which blew up, and the deaths of a number of workmen as well as his brother, Emil. The story of how much credit this budding industrialist gave to the inventor of nitroglycerin is a bit muddied by later conflict between the two men, but the Nobel Prize website and Nobel's biographer Fant both state that Nobel never tried to claim credit for that discovery.

As far back as the s, writes Rebecca Rawls for the Chemical and Engineering News , the positive effects of nitroglycerin on people with heart conditions was being explored.