Ascanio Sobrero

…1846 by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero by adding glycerol to a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. The hazards involved in preparing large quantities of nitroglycerin have been greatly reduced by widespread adoption of continuous nitration processes.

…discovered by an Italian chemist, Ascanio Sobrero, in 1846. Although he first called it pyroglycerin, it soon came to be known generally as nitroglycerin, or blasting oil. Because of the risks inherent in its manufacture and the lack of dependable means for its detonation, nitroglycerin was largely a laboratory curiosity…