In 1884, Paul Vieille invented a smokeless powder called Poudre B (short for "poudre blanche"—white powder, as distinguished from black powder) made from 68.2% insoluble nitrocellulose, 29.8% soluble nitrocellulose gelatinized with ether and 2% paraffin. This was adopted for the Lebel rifle. It was passed through rollers to form paper thin sheets, which were cut into flakes of the desired size. The resulting propellant, today known as "pyrocellulose", contains somewhat less nitrogen than guncotton and is less volatile. A particularly good feature of the propellant is that it will not detonate unless it is compressed, making it very safe to handle under normal conditions.