Making Blackpowder before 19th century

[Roadapple]

Could some one help me with idea where I can get data on how our forefathers made blackpowder. My son wants to do a paper on how gun powder was made during Revolutionary War times. He knows how to make it the CIA way. I check all my books, but to no luck. Any info would be of great.

[Algenco]

I recently watched a Civil War documentary that showed a "gunpowder cave" , the tough part was acquiring kno3, they gathered bat dropping, placed them in a "V' spaced rack and poured water over it.

The water dissolved the kno3, the resulting "liquor" was repeated poured over the dropping until a saturated solution was obtained.

 

The cave was in Virginia, there is another here in Kentucky about 20 miles from my house.

[Arthur]

The composition of BP has been known for several hundred years, but before the Haber Process for making ammonia and nitrate from air potassium nitrate was available from India and Chile as minerals for mining. Otherwise nitrate was available only from decaying organic matter. Several methods of purification existed and the ingredients for powder were usually easily available.

 

http://www.pyrodirect.com/ecom-catshow/Books.html Has several books on the manufacture of BP.

[Fly]

Try this!

 

http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/history.html

 

Fly

[Fly]

http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/bp_menu.html

 

Fly

[TheSidewinder]

Fixed your first link.

[Peret]

Thanks Fly, an interesting resource there.

 

There's a lengthy section on black powder development in Oglesby - Glitter the Chemistry. He gives a number of historical formulations with interesting notes suggesting that the early proportions weren't wrong, but were found by experiment to give the best results with the materials and techniques available at that time.

 

(Nitrate) Sulfur) (Charcoal) proportion/ percentage

15,2,3 --- 75% 10% 15% ("Waltham Abbey")

5,1,1 --- 71% 14% 14%

6,1,1 --- 75% 12.5% 12.5%

25,4,5 --- 74% 12% 14%

10,2,3 --- 67% 13% 20%

 

"The most ancient formulas are often faster than the Waltham Abbey formula, if the mixing, grinding and processing are crude. For instance, if a poor charcoal such as oak is used and mixing and grinding are poor and incomplete, the formula 6, 1, 1 will burn faster and make a better firecracker than 15, 2, 3 ... The formula 5, 1, 1 or its very close analog 25, 5, 4 will often yield faster powder than 15, 2, 3 with the simple methods of mixing and grinding used in fireworks. This is especially true if commercial charcoals are used without further grinding. Present day fireworks mixing techniques are very similar in results to the Spanish process in use circa 1650."

Edited September 19, 2010 by Peret