GUNPOWDER. An explosive mixture, con sisting of potassium nitrate, sulphur, and char used for military purposes, in firearms, and for blasting. For use with cannon and small alms, and for high-grade sporting rifles and shot guns, gunpowder is being rapidly superseded, and its place is being taken by the more recent smoke less powders (q.v.). There are, however, several important uses to which it is now put, the ex tent of which may be appreciated when it is stated that in 1900 the production of black gun powder in the United States was valued at $1, 452,377. It is employed as a priming charge in firing smokeless powder, and must be used in the older types of rifles and shotguns still owned throughout the United States. It is also neces sary in the manufacture of fuzes and fireworks, and is much used for saluting, as it is far less expensive and is quite as satisfactory for the purpose as the more modern smokeless powders.
The origin of gunpowder is involved in consid erable uncertainty, hut it is believed that the mixture and its characteristic properties have long been known, even before its use to propel a projectile from some form of artillery. There is evidence that the recipe for making gunpowder was in the hands of some of the alchemists of the thirteenth century, and on the strength of pas sages in the works of Roger Bacon. he is often spoken of as its inventor. in his De Scrretis Operibus Artis ct Natanm ct dr Nullitate Magim (1270) he gives the following directions for making gunpowder: "Mix together saltpetre with lura nop coin ubre and sulphur, and you will make thunder and lightning, if you know the mode of mixing." The mysterious 'lura nop cum ubre,' after the fashion of the time, was merely a transposition of the letters of the words car bonum pulvere, or charcoal. The discovery of gunpowder is also assigned to Berthold Schwartz, by whom it was mentioned in 1328. In addition to these references there are other quotations from medifeval writers bearing more or less on the subject, and also numberless traditions which confer on the ancients, and more especially the Eastern nations, the honor of this important dis covery. Such legends go back even to the time of Alexander the Great, and it was asserted that he refused to attack the Oxydracx, a race which occupied the country between the Hyphasis and the Ganges, because they "lived under the pro tection of the gods, and overthrew their enemies with thunder and lightning which they shot forth from their walls." This would seem to corrobo rate the theory that gunpowder was well known in China many centuries before its first appearance in Europe, and that it gradually worked its way westward.
Passing now to the realm of fact, we know that by the time of the battle of Crecy (1346) cannons in which gunpowder was used as the propellant were well known, and from that time as firearms were developed the amount of gun powder consumed increased. Although its use rapidly extended, nevertheless its improvement then and since took place at a very slow rate. Gunpowder was at one time very generally styled 'meal powder' on account of its fineness of grain and the intimate mixture of its ingredi ents. Even in the early days of its use it was
divided into different qualities, and one William Bourne, writing on gunpowder in 1587, makes a distinction between serpentine and come powder, the latter being the form known to-day. Serpen tine powder, according to Sir Henry Manwaring (Seaman's Dictionary, 1644), was never used at sea. He says that the cannon-powder of that date was not very strong, while the musket-pow der was the finest, strongest, and best that could be procared. William Bourne, to whose work reference, has already been made, speaks of a gunpowder commonly made by the 'Bours in Germanic,' which was very irregular in its qual ity, and had to be judged by its taste, color, and the rapidity with which it burned, the amount necessary for a charge being gauged by such a test. He advocates the use of a cartridge for the larger guns on shipboard in order to prevent the frequent explosions due to scattered powder. The difficulty of obtaining powder of an even quality persisted until the middle of the nine teenth century, and while the numerous wars made its manufacture necessary on a large scale, yet it was not until the end of the eighteenth century that any substantial improvements in apparatus or machinery were effected.
Gunpowder was made even before the Revolu tionary War in the United States with crude machinery which consisted mainly of stamp mills having mortars and pestles of wood and bronze, in which the materials were reduced to powder and thoroughly mixed. The powder thus ob tained was coarse and uneven. and the manufac ture was attended with great danger. In the eighteenth century the French Government gun powder, which was prepared under the direction of the famous chemist Lavoisier. attained con siderable reputation for high quality, and it was in France that the practice of pulverizing and mixing the separate materials in wheel mills was first employed. This method was invented by Cossigny in 1787, and in 1791 a revolving drum was first used for pulverizing, and the wheel mill reserved for mixing and incorporating materials. Improved methods and apparatus were brought to the United States by Dupont, a student of La voisier, and the famous works bearing his name at Wilmington, Del., were founded in 1802. In 1856 these works undertook the manufacture of blasting-powder, substituting the nitrate of so dium for that of potassium, and in 1868 the method previously suggested by Longehamps, Anthon, and Kuhlman, of obtaining the potas sium nitrate from sodium nitrate and potassium chloride, was adopted. About 1860 General Rod man of the United States Army determined to make powder of larger sized grains, which con sequently was slower burning, and enabled the Ordnance Department to construct guns of larger calibre. From this discovery resulted powders of variously shaped grains, generally symmetrical, and with perforations. By changing the nature of the carbon constituent, and using brown char coal as described below, the gunpowder was ren dered still slower burning, and in that form,'more or less improved, has been brought down to the present.