Gun cotton

Gun cotton, is nitro-cellulose, literally cotton that has been nitrated. If you simply nitrate a T-shirt, for example, and set fire to it, it will simply burn very quickly. However, in common with most explosives it only becomes an explosive when detonated under pressure. Thus, it has been used as a propellant for cartridges and cannon.

Gun cotton was accidentally discovered by the Swiss chemist Christian Schönbein in 1845, as he was undertaking nitration experiments in his kitchen at home. After mopping up a spill of nitric and sulphuric acids with a cotton towel, he hung the towel up to dry in front of the kitchen fire. The resulting explosion denoted the discovery of gun cotton.