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Smokeless powder is the name given to any number of gunpowder-like propellants used in firearms. The name is generally limited to rifles and other small guns, as opposed to similar propellants used in artillery which do not use the term.
Military commanders had been complaining since the Napoleonic Wars about the problems of giving orders on a battlefield that was covered in thick smoke from the gunpowder used by the guns. A major step forward was introduced when guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based propellant, was widely introduced in 1846. Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the same time was somewhat more volatile and powerful. This made it unsuitable as a propellant for small firearms, not only was it dangerous under field conditions, but guns that could fire thousands of rounds using gunpowder would be "used up" after only a few hundred with the more powerful guncotton. It did find wide use with artillery however.
In 1886 Paul Vieille invented a suitable smokeless gunpowder called Poudres B, made from gelatinized guncotton mixed with ether and alcohol. It was passed through rollers to form thin sheets, which were cut into flakes of the desired size. The resulting propellant, today known as pyrocellulose, contains somewhat less nitrogen than guncotton and is less volatile. A particularly nice feature of the propellant is that it would not burn unless it was compressed, making it very safe to handle under normal conditions. Vielle's powder was used in the Lebel rifle that was adopted by the French Army in the late 1880s, and it was not long before other European countries followed and started using their own versions of Poudres B. Vieille's powder revolutionized the effectiveness of small guns, not only did it give off almost no smoke, it was also much more powerful and allowed for accurate fire up to 1,000 yards.
In 1887 Alfred Nobel also developed a smokeless gunpowder, mixing a Poudres B-like propellant with nitroglycerine to provide more power. This mixture eventually became known as cordite, a powder easier to handle and more powerful than Poudre B. Today propellants based on nitrocellulose alone are known as single-base, whereas cordite-like mixtures are known as double-base.
Single and double-base smokeless powders now make up the vast majority of propellants used in firearms. They are so common that most references to "gunpowder" actually refer to a smokeless powder of some sort.
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