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Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Cordite was used for large weapons, such as tank guns, artillery and naval guns. It was also used in the . more...

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303 British, Mark I and II, standard rifle cartridge between 1891 and 1915; however shortages of cordite in World War I led to US-developed smokeless powders being imported into the UK for use in rifle cartridges.

Cordite has been used since World War I by the UK and British Commonwealth countries. Its use was further developed in the early years of World War II, as 2 inch and 3-inch diameter Unrotated Projectiles for launching anti-aircraft weapons. Small Cordite rocket charges were also developed for ejector seats made by the Martin-Baker Company.

Cordite is now obsolete and it is no longer produced. Production ceased in the United Kingdom, around the end of the 20th century, with the closure of the last World War II Cordite factory, ROF Bishopton. However, Cordite propellant may still be encountered in the form of legacy ammunition dating from World War II onwards.

Adoption of smokeless powder by the British government

Cordite started off as a double-base propellant. It was made by combining two high explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine.

Early European smokeless powders

The first smokeless powder, Poudre B, was developed in 1884 by the French chemist Paul Vieille. It was made out of two forms of nitrocellulose (collodion and guncotton) softened with ethanol and ether and kneaded together. It was immediately adopted by the French military but it tended to become unstable over time. The rifle and cartridge developed to utilize this powder were known generically as the '8mm Lebel', after the officer in charge of the development board, and were fielded in 1886.

The following year, 1887, Alfred Nobel invented and patented a smokeless propellant he called Ballistite. It was composed of 10% camphor, 45% nitroglycerine and 45% collodion (nitrocellulose). Over time the camphor tended to evaporate leaving an unstable explosive.

Development of cordite

A United Kingdom government committee, known as the "Explosives Committee", chaired by Sir Frederick Abel, monitored foreign developments in explosives and obtained samples of Poudre B and Ballistite. However, neither of these smokeless powders were recommended for adoption by the Explosives Committee.

Abel and Sir James Dewar, who was also on the committee, developed and jointly patented in 1889 a new propellant consisting of 58% nitroglycerine, by weight, 37% guncotton and 5% vaseline.

Read more at Wikipedia.org