High-explosive shells were filled with grade A TNT, which became preferred for other uses as industrial chemical capacity became available for removing xylene and similar hydrocarbons from the toluene feedstock and other nitrotoluene isomer byproducts from the nitrating reactions. The United States Navy continued filling armour-piercing shells with explosive D after some other nations had switched to TNT, but began filling naval mines, bombs, depth charges, and torpedo warheads with burster charges of crude grade B TNT with the color of brown sugar and requiring an explosive booster charge of granular crystallized grade A TNT for detonation.

The British started replacing Lyddite with TNT in 1907. TNT-filled armour-piercing shells would explode after they had penetrated the armour of British capital ships, whereas the British Lyddite-filled shells tended to explode upon striking armour, thus expending much of their energy outside the ship. The German armed forces adopted it as a filling for artillery shells in 1902.

TNT can be safely poured when liquid into shell cases, and is so insensitive that it was exempted from the UK's Explosives Act 1875 and was not considered an explosive for the purposes of manufacture and storage. Its explosive properties were first discovered in 1891 by another German chemist, Carl Häussermann. Its potential as an explosive was not recognized for three decades, mainly because it was too difficult to detonate because it was less sensitive than alternatives. TNT was first prepared in 1863 by German chemist Julius Wilbrand and originally used as a yellow dye.

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