Picric acid was the first high explosive nitrated organic compound widely considered suitable to withstand the shock of firing in conventional artillery . Nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose ( guncotton ) were available earlier but shock sensitivity sometimes caused detonation in the artillery barrel at the time of firing . In 1885 , based on research of Hermann Sprengel , French chemist Eugène Turpin patented the use of pressed and cast picric acid in blasting charges and artillery shells . In 1887 the French government adopted a mixture of picric acid and guncotton under the name '' ' Melinite ' '' . In 1888 , Britain started manufacturing a very similar mixture in Lydd , Kent , under the name '' ' Lyddite ' '' . Japan followed with an " improved " formula known as '' ' shimose powder ' '' . In 1889 , a similar material , a mixture of ammonium cresylate with trinitrocresol , or an ammonium salt of trinitrocresol , started to be manufactured under the name '' ' ecrasite ' '' in Austria-Hungary . By 1894 Russia was manufacturing artillery shells filled with picric acid . Ammonium picrate ( known as '' ' Dunnite ' '' or explosive D ) was used by the United States beginning in 1906 . However , shells filled with picric acid become highly unstable if the compound reacts with metal shell or fuze casings to form metal picrates which are more sensitive than the parent phenol . The sensitivity of picric acid was demonstrated in the Halifax Explosion . Picric acid was used in the Battle of Omdurman , Second Boer War , the Russo-Japanese War , and World War I. Germany began filling artillery shells with TNT in 1902 . Toluene was less readily available than phenol , and TNT is less powerful than picric acid , but improved safety of munitions manufacturing and storage caused replacement of picric acid by TNT for most military purposes between the World Wars
Halifax Explosion
Halifax Explosion
Picric acid