If you like history, science history, gun powder is one of those "great leaps forward" from the late 1800s. Allegedly an experimenter wiped up some spilled nitric and sulphuric acids with his wife's tea towel (cotton) and finished his experiment. Realizing that the Mrs. would be HOT, he rinsed it and hung it on the stove to dry before she came home. Later he heard a "whoosh" and could not find the towel. So he tried other things and... This is a variation on the process for making nitro glycerin... reacting nitric acid with glycerin in a strong acid environment (the sulphuric acid). Thus one of the early terms for smokeless powder..."gun cotton." The reaction is with cellulose, the basic carbon in cotton, wood pulp, etc.
This material ---raw gun cotton-- would remind you of clay or other plastic material. Dupont worked out the system for making spagetti and gave us the IMR (Improved Military Rifle) powders. Successors to SR and MR powders... (Sporting Rifle and Military Rifle)... some roll it out and cut it into shapes, probably with a stamping device... I have seen that in pull down European military rounds. Much later, circa WW II, Olin/Winchester figured out how to make it soupy enough to spin out as balls and give us "ball powder" from a machine that spins the soup... As I understand, part of the soup is nitro glycerin, adding to the energy... Hercules/Alliant has made "double based" powders for a century now, I think. Containing gun cotton and nitro glycerin. Needless to say, there are powder comapanies around the world and they do "job lot" work for anyone with the price. I believe Scot powders were originally from Scotland... (ha, ha) And Hodgdon had something made in Italy... Accurate were originally from Israel. Guess why Israel has a gun powder maker??? Now the Chinese are big into everything...
This is raw powder of varying characteristics. The refining to "cannister burn rates" is accomplished with coatings. Graphite is also supposed to ground the powder against static electricity. Col. Nontes had a book out that went into this in detail. The machinry is turned on and whatever comes out is tested. If it is near cannister, it is held back for blending with other "close" batches ... Otherwise it is sold to ammo companys with labs that work out their own loads, set up the machines and load a couple hundred thousand rounds. Thus, you do not use the weight of a load of powder from a commercial cartridge, 'CAUSE chances are you cannot get that powder!
As said, this is trivial mis-information to the shooter/hand loader. YOU do not worry about it. YOU buy from a reliable source and trust the data from that source. As said, COLLECT all the manuals you can find. Often they are quite cheap used at gun shows.
It is also amusing to some, IMR 4895 was originally developed by Dupont for the Garand .30/'06 load... After the war, Hodgdon bought train cars full of it surplus and was selling it for $0.50 per pound retail... (the good old days)... Only then did Dupont decide they wanted some of the $$$ and make it available cannister. Your 110 is/was an Olin powder (just like 296) but made for the government and got into the Hodgdon channels surplus. For the .30 Carbine round, I believe.
The manuals will explain, more or less, revolvers were developed around black powder. Thank you Mr./Col. Colt. Case capacity reflects this. Full loads of slow smokeless like 110 can be very powderful AND KICK! You can use a much faster powder in smaller amounts... Bullseye is one of the oldest, to get 50%? 60%? of the performance with alot less kick... It is a balancing act. [At the same time, fill the case with that fast powder and your handgun becomes a gernade... please don't.]
You have begun a "learning process." Some of use enjoy the activity. Study. Think. Act carefully and responsibly. Enjoy the journey.
