Alfred Nobel

“ When nitric acid of a high specific gravity is used for the preparation of nitro-glycerine, the temperature is much increased by the reaction. It is, therefore, better to introduce the nitric acid and the glycerine gradually into the sulphuric acid, allowing the mixture to cool between each operation.
In the other method, the mixture of sulphuric and nitric acids is placed in one vessel and the glycerine in another; from each of these vessels a pipe conducts the streams of acids and glycerine into the mixing-tube. ”

“ Nobel's invention consisted in the discovery that nitro-glycerine could be made rapidly and in large quantities by the methods hereinafter described—the object being to secure a rapid and continuous mixing of streams of mixed acids and glycerine without creating sufficient reaction to produce oxidation. ”

“ A modification of this apparatus may be used to insure the thorough mixing of the acids and glycerine by the use, instead of the conical mixing-tube c, of a tube which is put into rapid motion by a wheel or other contrivance, into the upper end of which the acids and glycerine are separately introduced, which will combine, as they flow through it, so instantaneously that the product (nitro-glycerine) is formed as quickly as they can pass through the tube. ”