13th Century

First works by Marcus Groecus and Roger Bacon giving quantitative formulas for black powder as defined today (saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal), also known as gunpowder.

1336 - Philippe VI de Valois charters gunpowder manufacturers, placing them under the authority of the Grand Maître des Arbalétriers (“infantry master”).

1346 - Battle of Crécy: for the first time, the English army uses guns against Philippe VI and the French knights.

1582 - Creation of a “gunpowder Commissioners and Controllers corps”.

1630 - First use of black powder as an explosive in a Hungarian mine.

1665 - Louis XIV creates the “Ferme de Poudres et Saltpêtres.

18th Century

Major advances in the field by chemists and powder experts, including Lavoisier, Carny, Berthollet, Chaptal.

1775 - Turgot, controller-general of finance under Louis XVI, appoints Lavoisier “director of powders”. That same year, Lavoisier perfects the manufacturing procedures for gunpowder and also improves its force.

1787 - Lavoisier establishes the new chemical naming system in collaboration with Berthollet, Fourcroy and Guyton.

1789 - Gunpowder manufactured using a new technique, supported by Lavoisier and Chaptal.

1791 - Carny develops a fast, economical production process for black powder. Deployed by the Grenelle powder works in 1794, the process will not survive the explosion of this factory.

1797 - The law of 13 Fructidor, Year V: the State is given a monopoly on the manufacture of gunpowder.

19th and 20th Centuries

Engineer Durand replaces potassium nitrate from saltpeter with potassium nitrate manufactured chemically from sodium nitrate. Production of a number of different explosives starts: guncotton, nitroglycerine, dynamite, melinite, ammonium nitrate explosives and tolite.

1873 - By the decree of November 13, the Powder and Saltpeter Department becomes part of the Ministry of War.

1884 - Invention of smokeless powder by Paul Vieille at the Gunpowder Department laboratory.

A few years later, development of ballistic powder by Alfred Nobel, cordite by Abel and solventless propellant in Germany.

1926 - The Powder and Saltpeter Department becomes the Department of Powders.

1971 - October 1: creation of SNPE, which takes over all industrial and commercial operations of the Department of Powders.