SOBRERO, ASCAGNE. - THE DISCOVERY OF NITROGLYCERIN.

Sur plusieur composés détonants produits avec l'acide nitrique et le sucre, la dextrine, la lactine, la mannite et la glycérine.

(Paris, Bachelier),1847. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome XXIV, No. 7. Pp. (209-) 252. (Entire issue offered). Sobrero's paper: pp. 247-248. Clean and fine.

First appearance of the paper in which Sobrero announced his discovery of nitroglycerin.

"When I think of all the victims killed during nitroglycerine explosions, and the terrible havoc that has been wreaked, which in all probability will continue to occur in the future, I am almost ashamed to admit to be its discoverer." (Sobrero)

"Nitroglycerin was synthesized by the chemist Ascagne Sobrero in the middle of the nineteenth century. When he tasted it, as all good nineteenth century chemists did when they discovered a new compound, it gave him what he called a migraine, because of its vasodilatory effect, which was later harnessed in the treatment of angina by William Murrell (1879), following the experience of a distinguished British clinician, Lauder Brunton, using amyl nitrite (1867)
Later in the nineteenth century, Alfred Nobel discovered how to stabilize nitroglycerin, using kieselguhr (diatomite) clay; this led to highly successful industrial applications of dynamite and created the fortune that eventually funded the eponymous prizes. For medical purposes nitroglycerin was subsequently renamed glyceryl trinitrate, to hide the fact that it was literally dynamite as well as metaphorically."

Order-nr.: 48815