CORDITE, a propellant employed in various military serv ices, so called because of its usual cord-like form. It is also made up into other shapes such as flakes, ribbons or tubes with one or more perforations. Cordite is essentially a thoroughly blended mixture of nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton gelatinized effectively by acetone. Soft paraffin or vaseline, obtained during the dis tillation of petroleum, is added as a stabilizing agent. The orig inal cordite (Cordite, Mark 1), as manufactured at the Royal gunpowder factory, Waltham Abbey, England, in 1890, was com posed of 37 parts of gun-cotton, 57.5 parts of nitro-glycerine and 5 parts of mineral jelly together with 0.5% of acetone. Owing to its large content of nitro-glycerine this cordite had a high tempera ture of explosion and produced considerable erosion of big guns. A modified composition—Cordite M.D.—which was introduced in 1901, contains 64 parts of gun-cotton, 3o.2 parts of nitro-glycerine and 5 parts of vaseline with about o.8% of acetone. Both varieties are in use and other modifications have been adopted. Soluble nitro-cellulose has been used instead of gun-cotton with a higher proportion of nitro-glycerine in order to give a similar ballistic effect to that produced by Cordite M.D. (See EXPLOSIVES.)