Saltpeter history

Dawkins, J. M. (1956), Zinc and saltpeter, Notes on the Early History of Zinc, Zinc Development Association, New York. 

Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 1737-1810. Professor of chemistry, and later professor of divinity, at Cambridge. Between 1768 and 1781 he published a collection of chemical essays on water, air, coal, lead, zinc, salt, saltpeter, and other common substances. He gave an excellent account of the early history of zinc... 

A mixture known as black powder revolutionized the art of warfare whenever it was applied to the propulsion of missiles. Black powder is a mixture of potassium nitrate (saltpeter), charcoal, and sulfur in varying proportions, granulation, and purity. A typical composition of a modern black powder is saltpeter 75%, charcoal 15%, and sulfur 10%.7 A mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur with other ingredients was used in China and India in the eleventh century for incendiary and pyrotechnic purposes long before true black powder was invented.8 History often deals in conjecture and opinion and it is not known for certain when and by whom black powder was invented, or when and by whom it was applied to the propulsion of a missile from a firearm. The composition of black powder was first recorded by English Franciscan monk Roger Bacon in 1249, but he did not apply it to the propulsion of a missile from a firearm. This use of black powder is usually credited to a German Franciscan monk Berthold Schwartz in the early fourteenth century.9... 

The early history of pyrotechnics and the early history of black powder are the same narrative. Incendiary compositions containing saltpeter, and generally sulfur, mixed with combustible materials were used both for amusement and for purposes of w ar. They developed on the one hand into black powder, first used in... 

At a concentration of 22.7 g kg sodium is among the most abundant elements in the Earth s crust, and is found in relatively pure form in extensive deposits of chloride, sulfate, and other salts. With this concentration it occupies seventh place in the frequency list of elements. Of all species dissolved in ocean water, sodium is that with the highest concentration, about 11 gkg . Sodium chloride, occurring as rock salt or halite, is by far the most common natural source of sodium other important sodium salts found widely in nature are sodium borate (kernite), sodium carbonate (trona), sodium nitrate (Chile saltpeter), and sodium sulfate (mirabilite) (Klemm et al. 2000). The history of the industrial production of sodium, which extends over more than 100 years, can be divided into four periods. Thermochemical reduction processes were used in two factories between 1854 and 1890. The annual production of sodium was 5-6 tons in 1854, and > 150 tons between 1888 and 1890. 

Gunpowder, a remarkable substance that irreversibly changed the course of warfare, and thus world history, was invented, or perhaps simply chanced upon, in China, perhaps as far back as 2,000 years ago. According to myth or legend or oral history, a Chinese cook inadvertently mixed the correct proportions of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter and found it to be explosive when heated. That proportion—still in use today—is 1 part sulfur, 1.5 parts charcoal, and 7.5 parts saltpeter or potassium nitrate (KNO3). (Sodium nitrate or Chile saltpeter may also be used effectively.)... 

Very early in history man came across nitrogen compounds, for instance, saltpeter and nitric acid, frequently observing liberation of brown vapours of nitrogen dioxide. Obviously, it would be impossible to discover nitrogen by decomposing its inorganic compounds. Tasteless, colourless, odorless, and chemically rather inactive, nitrogen would have remained nnnoticed. 

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