Black Powder Blasting

April 19, 2012

Good day Gentlefolks, I am currently doing some work which involves some of the history of BP in blasting. Part of this work is to look at techniques, shot patterns, diameter of shot holes and quantity of powder. I know and understand that a great deal of the information I am looking for was held in the heads of the old 'powder monkeys' however I would be very interested if anyone has a set of 'firing tables' for hole diameter, quantity and type of powder for this type of work. I have looked on line but much of what I have been able to find is of a very general nature and not really what I am after.

Any pointers would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

April 19, 2012

A lot of info is needed for type of rocks etc. Ea. situation is diff. I know some blasters that still shoot Bp to quarry Granite. From what I know he uses large grain powder and I believe 1.5" shot holes. Not sure of the spacing, but it was something like every foot or so. This is all depending on the rock and other factors. Your gonna need a blasters manual to get the specifics.

April 20, 2012

BP blasting was WAY back when (civil war era).

Hercules, Atlas, Trojan & Dupont stick powder was in use in underground mining every since it was invented.

I sent you a PM, with a link in it about drill hole patterns, etc..

Also see the link below:

http://material.eng.usm.my/stafhome/termizi/EBS419E%20Blasting%20Tech/I_UNDERGROUND%20BLASTING.pdf

Edited April 20, 2012 by oldguy

April 20, 2012

Du Pont's "Blaster's Handbook" mentions that BP has a heaving rather than shattering action and is used today for quarrying decorative rocks, but that's about the total extent of its coverage. It gives no drilling patterns for anything except dynamite. Otis Young's "Western Mining" mentions that gunpowder blasting was a Saxon invention, and that the Spanish miners in Mexico were getting through 14,000 quintals of powder a year in 1810 (1 quintal = approx 46 kilograms). He writes, "Most of it was wasted, since for want of safety fuse the pegadores dared not shoot rounds of holes but had to restrict themselves to putting down and shooting out one hole at a time. To compensate, they mistakenly drilled their holes too deep, thinking that the increased powder capacity thereof would offset the bad characteristics of a single shot." So the historic shot pattern you seek is one hole, too deep. :glare: I couldn't find gunpowder blasting mentioned in "De Re Metallica" so it must have been a 17th century invention.

The people who really developed black powder blasting in a serious way were the Cornish tin miners, and that's a good place to find what you want. I can't point you at a book, but their high casualties were the reason safety fuse was invented by William Bickford in 1836, so googling Bickford and following the side links should lead you to all the BP blasting information on the web.

April 20, 2012

Many thanks for your input guys. I have been trawling through the internet without much real luck. I thought that as many members of this site have an interest in the black stuff that someone may have stumbled across loading charts or such like. To be honest, I have a feeling that such things exist as much of the knowledge gained was kept at local level and is therefore quite likely to have been lost.