The Great Russian Scientist Mendeleev

Once upon a time, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev invented a smokeless pyrocollodion powder.

At the time, European armies were rearming, and the Russian Naval Ministry reasoned that it would be better to have its own smokeless propellant technology than to rely on pyroxylin, which was already being produced at the Okhta Powder Works using French technology under the supervision of French specialists. Moreover, that pyroxylin was suitable only for certain types of artillery and had an unfortunate tendency to explode during manufacture.

It would seem that in 1892–1893 pyrocollodion passed tests for all types of artillery with flying colors.

Mendeleev vigorously promoted its adoption and developed ways to reduce production costs. But things did not go as planned. According to one account, military officials simply could not tolerate the fact that a civilian like Mendeleev was interfering in their affairs—criticizing them, giving orders, and making demands.

In reality, however, the great chemist appears to have threatened not so much military pride as the monopoly built around pyroxylin.

The Okhta plant quickly assembled a prestigious scientific commission, which concluded that pyrocollodion was practically no different from the pyroxylin already produced at Okhta and, in any case, would require lengthy additional testing before its suitability could be established—in effect dismissing it as a dubious innovation.

Mendeleev and First World War

Mendeleev disagreed. He argued his case, lobbied tirelessly, wrote reports and memoranda, but in 1895 he finally gave up, transferred all rights to the Naval Ministry, and withdrew from the project.

While government officials passed responsibility for pyrocollodion back and forth, the Russo-Japanese War broke out—and large-scale production had still not been established.

Meanwhile, the formula was reportedly obtained without much difficulty by Jean-Baptiste Bernadou, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, as a spy, who in 1895 secured a patent in his own name and provided samples of the substance to American specialists.

Then, when the First World War began and Russian officials finally decided that the army and navy really did need smokeless powder, they found themselves purchasing millions of rubles’ worth of what was by then considered “American” powder.

Fortunately, Mendeleev did not live to see it.

It is important to remember that Mendeleev was not only the inventor of smokeless pyrocollodion powder but also the creator of the famous Periodic Table of Chemical Elements—for which, incidentally, he never received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.