Munroe, Charles Edward

Munroe, Charles Edward

(1849–1938) chemist; born in Cambridge, Mass. Based at the Naval Torpedo Station and War College in Newport, R.I. (1886–92), he was the foremost explosives chemist of his time, inventing smokeless gunpowder (c. 1890) and discovering important properties of guncotton that led to the development of bazookas and shaped charges in World War II. He also played a role in the development of armor-piercing shells.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.