Really good info there Driftwood Johnson!

Indeed, by the mid to latter 1890s, various Ammunition Manufacturers were offering 'Smokeless' Loadings for the various popular Cartridges and or Arms or Revolvers of the day.

No doubt people were using off the shelf Smokeless Loadings at that time, in SAAs made in the early 1870s, and, we do not have much of anything passed down from them to edify us on how that went.

I assume it went 'Okay', for the most part! - even as did those Cartridges people were re-Loading themselves with the new 'Smokless' offerings slated for such application, with some of the then ( mid to late 1890s ) 'Smokeless', when following the Manufacturer's Loading Tables for their Cartridge and or Arm.


Many of those early 'Smokeless' Powders are long gone now, or have become unknown as for just what they were, other than their Trade Names, and the information published at the time for use as Loading Tables.

I assume they duplicated the Black Powder Velocities...


I remember reviewing some Smokeless Powder Manufacturer's Literatures from the mid 1890s and early 1900s, in which they had explainations and information about the use of their 'Smokeless' in Cap & Ball as well as in Metallic Cartridge Arms of all sorts, Shotguns, Rifles, Revolvers, Single Shot Percussion Pistols...

One of those Powders I am pretty sure was 'Unique', but, the others have become vague or not-successive or continuous through time, for us to obtain them now, unless maybe we happen to find an old, unopened Can of some, and or of the right kind of some.


But, all in all, generally, the Graph you posted agrees with what everyone has said for a Century or more now - that generally, when loaded for standard Loadings, Smokeless will have a sooner higher pressure, than Black Powder, when giving the same result for Velocity to the Bullet.

There may be and likely are exceptions to this, considering there are or have been a great many 'Smokeless' Powders over the years, and, some of them may well have enjoyed giving a curve and duration more similar to Black Powder.