The flaming apron that sparked the invention of gun cotton and the motion picture industry

I09: Gun cotton, or nitrocellulose, is a staple of a certain era of science fiction — and a certain era of firerarms. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was called 'smokeless powder' and used by the French military. Meanwhile, Jules Verne was using it, in his novels, to launch things into space and fight off bad guys. And smokeless powder was discovered because of a cooking accident and an apron.