Black Powder

Where to begin with explosives? Well, I thought it made sense to start with Black Powder, the ultimate fore father of all things that bang and pop.

Black powder is mix between charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur, and was estimated to be invented in China around the 9th century. I know this because I was there. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh! That makes sense, China is big on fireworks and stuff.” Well yeah, that’s not not true, but the crazy thing is it was originally developed by Taoists for medicinal purposes. Think of it like those ads you see for charcoal toothpaste that magically whitens your teeth, except not really and definitely don’t try that at home, kids. 

While black powder knowledge spread to Asia and Europe, there was also this other technology being developed called “Greek fire”. Greek fire, for which there are records dating back to 670, involved the addition of saltpeter to combustible mixtures already in use, and is seen as the ancestor of black gunpowder and pyrotechnic composition. Who the heck is Peter comma Salt? Saltpeter refers to a group of nitrogen-containing compounds, but for this purpose it is Potassium Nitrate. Also a common ingredient in fertilizer.

The guy that gets the credit for inventing black powder (wow classic western history), is a German monk named Berthold Schwartz. He was an alchemist, which is one of my favorite books and also one of my favorite occupations to tell people I am (it’s not not true).

Firearms came into more prominent use in the 1320’s. After firearms were being used for a while, experiments were performed to find the best ratio of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur, as seen in the table below:

	Saltpeter (KNO3)	Charcoal	Sulfur
8th century, Marcus Graecus	66.66	22.22	11.11
8th century, Marcus Graecus	69.22	23.07	31.25
c. 1252, Roger Bacon	37.50	31.25	31.25
1350, Ardene (laboratory recipe)	66.6	22.2	11.1
1560, Bruxelles studies	75.0	15.62	9.38
1635, British Government	75.0	12.5	12.5
1781, Bishop Watson	75.0	15.0	10.0

These experiments spanned centuries until the ratio of 75/15/10 saltpeter/charcoal/sulfur was reached. You know what’s really crazy? That ratio is the industry standard today, and it is not far off from what was being done in the 8th century!

Black powder was used as a propellant in firearms until it was replaced by smokeless powder. Black powder is still used today, albiet in much smaller amounts in ammunition. It is still an important component of ammunition and pyrotechnics, and more importantly understanding it’s components allowed for the further development of energetic material developments to this day.

Sources:

	T. L. Davis, The Chemistry of Powder & Explosives, 1943.
	P. W. Cooper and S. R. Kurowski, Introduction to the Technology of Explosives, New York: Wiley-VCH, 1996.