Posted on 07/24/2023 4:00:14 AM PDT by marktwain
Gunpowder by Jack Kelly is the best history on the subject this writer has encountered. It is not a “how to” book, although the essentials of how to make black powder are covered in enough detail that one could do so. The book elaborates on the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of persons who died while making black powder over the roughly 800 years of its primacy. “Gunpowder” starts with an examination of the long development of the “fire drug” in China, from about 1050 A.D. to 1230 A.D. During this 180-year period, Chinese “fire drug” producers learned to increase the amount of saltpeter to the optimum amount of about 75% of the total by weight, with 15% softwood charcoal and 10% sulfur. The type of wood used for charcoal is critical to the quality of the gunpowder produced.
The formula for gunpowder was likely transmitted to Europe through the Muslim world. While both Chinese and Muslim cultures had access to the information, it was Europeans who perfected gunpowder to a form that was relatively stable and could be transported across oceans in usable condition. In this form, it was ready to use at a moment’s notice in relatively fast loading, reliable and accurate cannon, and handheld individual weapons.
Gunpowder was used militarily in Europe at least as early as 1326. It was used in the Battle of Crécy in 1346. By the late 1300s, European inventors had created a major improvement, the wrought iron stave and ring cannon known as bombards. Later, in 1451, a European transferred state-of-the-art gun-casting technology to the Muslim empire, which allowed the Turkish Sultan to conquer Constantinople.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
“In 2267, Captain James T. Kirk manufactured gunpowder from the minerals available on a planetoid’s surface in order to help him defeat the Gorn Captain in combat arranged by the Metrons.”
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Gunpowder
But seriously, I’m bookmarking this for later. I’m on a history book reading binge this summer and will check this out. Thanks
BTTT
very good book.
Potassium nitrate was the hardest ingredient to come by. It’s the oxidizer, required for it to burn fast. In the Middle Ages they scoured the countryside looking for it, but can also be produced by bacteria. You can buy it on the internet but I wonder if that would raise any flags.
Had to pull the bullets from some new ammo with cases that had surface corrosion. Saved the powder, now wondering what sort of fun I can have with it. Pipe bombs are out, and do not have any campfires to toss in into.
I hate the Metrons. And it scares me that I was thinking of the same Star Trek episode when I read the excerpt.
Just pick up a bag of "Stump Rot" at Lowes or Home Depot.
“You can buy it on the internet but I wonder if that would raise any flags.”
That depends on where you are in the political spectrum. If you are a known MAGA supporter, you’d have a file a foot thick. If you are a Portland leftist wanting to overthrow the government, you’d be hardly noticed. They might even help you find it.
There are caves scattered through in the southeastern United States (and as far west as Texas) where there are (in some cases) perfectly preserved remnants of wooden troughs used by Confederates to leech salt peter from bat guano.
When I was a kid, my brother and I used to make our own black powder to shoot in a pepper-box we found in the attic. We bought the ingredients from the local drug store, took the recipe from the 11th Ed Encyclopaedia Britannica and by experiment found it worked best to grind wet and dry in the sun. We made our own charcoal from willow twigs. Caps we made from the white tips of matches.
I found it fascinating the type of wood used to make the powder is very important.
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