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Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD.. Gunpowder is the first explosive to have been developed. Popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China, it was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) while the earliest recorded chemical formula for gunpowder dates to the Song dynasty (11th century).
Prior to the discovery, nitraries were widespread all over the Kingdom of Naples. Manure was collected by the government and used to make saltpeter, which was a key ingredient for gunpowder. After the discovery, it was suggested that manure could be used for agriculture, in order to increase the production, rather than to make gunpowder. [10]
This is a timeline of the history of gunpowder and related topics such as weapons, warfare, and industrial applications. The timeline covers the history of gunpowder from the first hints of its origin as a Taoist alchemical product in China until its replacement by smokeless powder in the late 19th century (from 1884 to the present day).
Finnish smokeless powder. Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formulation and the smokeless propellant which replaced it are commonly described as gunpowder.
The earliest gunpowder recipe and gunpowder weapons date to China's Song dynasty and the oldest extant guns appear in the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. However, historian Tonio Andrade notes that there is a surprising scarcity of reliable evidence of firearms in Iran or Central Asia prior to the late 14th century.
Gunpowder was extensively used in the Naderian Wars. Around the late 14th century, European powdermakers first began adding liquid during grinding to improve mixing, reduce dust, and with it the risk of explosion. [137] The powder-makers would then shape the resulting paste of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry.
Canal boats carried about 25 tons, and sometimes sailed all the way to Boston when weather was favorable. [ 5 ] After plant explosions killed one employee each in 1835, 1847, 1849, 1850, and 1851, a major explosion on 12 October 1855 killed seven employees, [ 5 ] including Whipple's brother and son, injured five more and destroyed a canal boat ...
Although all firearm propellants are generally called powder, [1] the term gunpowder originally described mixtures of charcoal and sulfur with potassium nitrate as an oxidizing agent. [2]: 133, 137 By the 20th century these early propellants were largely replaced by smokeless powder of nitrocellulose or similarly nitrated organic compounds.