Included letters patent issued by the United States Patent Office, certified copies, petitions by patentees, and related items concerning patents for explosive compounds. The most extensive series includes the consecutive transfer of assignments of patents issued to Alfred Nobel for the invention of nitroglycerin, and the patent and market arrangements of the Atlantic Giant Powder Co., the Giant Powder Co. (both incorporated in California), and the United States Blasting Oil Co., of New York. Nobel's nitroglycerin patents, held by the United States Blasting Oil Co., were assigned, after its failure, by Taliaferro P. Shaffner and in turn by Joseph P. Stewart, to the Atlantic Giant Powder Co., which, with its parent company, the Giant Powder Co., divided the American market.