Paul Vieille

Paul Vieille, a French chemist and physicist, solved the problems associated with guncotton by developing processes to remove all of the residual acids from the material. He also added stabilizers such as diphenylamine to keep it from exploding spontaneously. The resulting compound, after additional processing, could be formed into the material that eventually became known as smokeless powder. Despite the fact that he succeeded in stabilizing nitrocellulose, it is no coincidence that Vieille and his partner, Marcellin Berthelot, made the important discovery of shock waves in physics.