DI Mendeleev was a brilliant Russian encyclopedic scientist who made many important discoveries for various fields of science and technology. Many people know that he is the author of the Fundamentals of Chemistry and the periodic law of chemical elements. However, not everyone knows that Mendeleev invented for the needs of the army.
Background
In the spring of 1890, Dmitry Ivanovich had a conversation with Vice Admiral N. M. Chikhachev, who held the post of manager of the Ministry of the Sea. He invited the scientist to take an active part in the project to create a domestic smokeless powder that would be suitable for naval artillery guns. It is known that by then the armies of France and England already had this.
Pyroxylin was the basis of existing smokeless powders. It was obtained from cotton wool, which was treated with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids. In that era, such technologies were always kept secret. Mendeleev, without hesitation, took up the solution to this difficult task.
The scientist took as his assistants L. G. Fedotov and I. M. Cheltsov. In early June, Mendeleev went with them to London. There he met with many chemical scientists, and also visited several laboratories, but none of them revealed to him the secret of producing smokeless powder. Then he goes to France. In the laboratory of E. Saro, they showed him a test of smokeless powder and even gave a sample weighing 2 grams. He carefully examined its properties and concluded that it was unsuitable for ship guns. He reported this to Minister Chikhachev.
The fate of the invention
Soon, Dmitry Ivanovich was offered a job in a well-equipped scientific and technical laboratory, where he began to conduct various experiments. In the same year, he managed to discover pyrocollodion, which surpassed all foreign analogues. It was his scientist who suggested using it as gunpowder.
In 1892, this substance was tested. Mendeleev’s pyrocollode gunpowder showed excellent results following firing from 47-mm guns. However, bureaucratic delays and inconsistencies in the work of several ministries at once prevented adopting this invention. I must say that it was not properly classified, so they soon learned about it in the West. As a result, the discovery of pyrocollodic gunpowder was patented by an unknown American naval lieutenant, D. Bernad.
What Mendeleev invented for the needs of the army, Russia during World War I had to be purchased from the United States. In fact, it was the very pyrocollodion gunpowder that the Russian scientist synthesized in the laboratory.