Black powder, Gunpowder

At low temperatures the ignitability of black powder is quite good, but at low pressure less than 1 atm. it becomes uncertain. 

Black powder burns with a great burning rate even at 1 atm. This allows us to fire a shell in a loose mortar in spite of little clearance between the shell and the mortar.With a smokeless powder,which burns only quite slowly below 1 atm, we cannot fire the shell unless we use a thick and heavy mortar and close the clearance entirely to raise the interior pressure to allow the smokeless powder to burn quickly, but it is not practical. 

Black powder is quite stable at room temperature or even at lower temperatures, but the grains gradually coagulate over 70°C. 

Black powder corrodes copper, bronze and iron in the presence of moisture. When this powder comes in contact with ammonium perchlorate, it creates ammonium nitrate and becomes wet, because the ammonium nitrate absorbs moisture extraordinarily. 

Quality and standard. There is a standard, JIS K 4805 Black Powder, but the product under JIS is not sold commercially. One analysis showed that it contained 74.20% potassium nitrate, 9.62% sulphur, 16.18% charcoal and 1.16% moisture. The true specific gravity was 1.77, but when it was manufactured, the ratio of the component materials when it was mixed was, potassium nitrate sulphur charcoal, 74 10 16. 

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Potassium nitrate is best known as the oxidizing agent in old-fashioned black powder gunpowder, which is 75 percent potassium nitrate by weight. The other ingredients are 15 percent charcoal and 10 percent sulfur. 

In spite of numerous failures, as for instance the explosion of his factory in 1864, Nobel introduced the use of explosive oil in place of black powder (gunpowder) for mining purposes. 

Black powder (gunpowder) consists of an intimate mixture of finely divided solids, 75rJ potassium nitrate. I V.( carbon. Isulfur. Powders for sporting guns contain a slightly larger percentage of potassium nitrate... 

Black Powder (Gunpowder) Substance consisting of an intimate mixture of charcoal or other carbon and either potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate, with or without sulphur. It may be meal, granular, compressed or pelletized. UN App. B, ICAO A2, lATA App. A... 

See also under Black Powder or Gunpowder inVol 2, B165-R ff Ref Sancho (1941), 253-85... 

Powder,- Black. See Black Powder or Gunpowder in Vol 2, B165-R ff... 

People love the spectacle of fireworks. From Bastille Day in France to Guy Fawkes Day in Britain, from Chinese New Year to Canada Day, fireworks bring joy to celebrations all around the world. In the United States, about 100 million worth of fireworks are discharged every year in honor of Independence Day. Fireworks date back more than 1000 years to the discovery of black powder in China. This first gunpowder was brought to Europe during the Middle Ages and was used widely in weapons, in construction, and for fireworks. 

Nitric acid and nitrates are important chemicals. For example, black powder (also known as gunpowder) has been used for centuries, and it is a mixture containing 75% KN03, 15% C, and 10% S. The mixture is made into flakes while wet and then dried. Except for large guns on naval vessels, it has been replaced by nitrocellulose (smokeless) powder that also contains small amounts of certain additives. 

Autoignition of fresh charcoal, but not gunpowder prepared from it, is known to have happened in the black powder industry. (Optimum charcoal for gunpowder production is well short of being fully carbonised). 

When black powder is used to propel rockets it is classed as a composite propellant (where the fuel and oxidiser are intimately mixed) and forms part of a rocket motor in which the powder is compressed to form a monolithic single grain inside a combustion chamber as shown in Figure 3.1. As well as gunpowder, the composite propellant mix will contain a binder which is used to improve the cohesion of the ingredients. Binders form a distinct phase and tend to reduce the sensitiveness of the propellant to shock and impact. When based on organic materials, as is normally the case, they will serve as part of the fuel component also. 

BLACK POWDER (synonymous with Gunpowder) An intimately milled mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal that has propellant or explosive properties. 

Skipping about two centuries, the activities of one experimenter typify the development of early black powder. His work took place between about 1235 and 1290 ad and he is reputed to have been the first scholar in Northern Europe who was skilled in the use of black powder. In essence, his work provided the backbone of all early chemical purification and formulation, without which the development of true gunpowders would not have been possible. His name was Roger Bacon (Figure 1.1). 

Guns were invented shortly after Bacon s death in about 1292 and so he never used the term gunpowder . However, he had certainly had experience of fireworks for which his early black powder recipe would have been perfectly suitable. In the Opus Majus he wrote ... 

No description of British devices corresponding to US electric squibs is found in Brit books on explosives in our possession, such as Refs 36, 38 51. In Ref 38, p 59 is, however, a description of an electric device which probably serves the same purpose. It is an electric powder fuse, which consists of a thick paper tube contg a small chge of Blasting Powder (Brit for Black Powder or Gunpowder), with an ordinary low-tension fusehead fixed at one end. On passing electric current thru the fusehead it flashes and sets off the BkPdr in the tube, which can... 

Numerous mixtures have been proposed for ignition of explosives. Of these, the most commonly used are mealed gunpowder, finely grained Black Powder, nitrocellulose mixed with other substances finely divided smokeless powders mixed with other substances... 

Black Powder. Kokushokuyaku (Black Color Explosive) or Yuenyaku (Nonsmokeless Powder) Gunpowder — Kayaku. Black, loose-powdery material consisting of K nitrate, sulfur charcoal. It was used during WWII for the follow-... 

Gunpowder. Kayaku or Black Powder. Koku-shokuyaku, also called Yuenyaku (Nonsmoke-less Powder)... 

Gunpowder, Black. Brit for Black Powder, which is described in Vol 2 of Encycl, pp B165-L to B175-R... 

Black powder, compressed or Gunpowder, compressed or Black powder, in pellets or Gunpowder, in pellets 0028... 

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