Gunpowder has been used for centuries, but did you know that the Chinese invented it by complete accident? Here's everything ...

France could not import gunpowder or saltpeter and took to collecting urine from soldiers and livestock. This source of nitrates was collected, converted from calcium nitrate to potassium nitrate ...

But you can always reload great grandpa’s musket with some homemade gunpowder. All kidding aside ... that go into this experiment are ammonium nitrate and potassium chloride.

The author, popular historian Christopher Hibbert, went into how important it was for the soldiers to guard their gunpowder ... found a reliable source of potassium nitrate—saltpeter—in ...

Experimenting with life-lengthening elixirs around A.D. 850, Chinese alchemists instead discovered gunpowder ... name for the powerful oxidizing agent potassium nitrate — in medical compounds ...

Gunpowder recipes call for charcoal and sulfur in small quantities, both of which for aren’t too hard to find. But the main ingredient–potassium nitrate, also called saltpeter–was only ...

charcoal and the food preservative potassium nitrate when — bang! — he invented gunpowder instead. The Chinese added this mixture to bamboo segments or rolled it up in paper tubes.

or by the reaction of ammonium nitrate with potassium hydroxide or chloride. Early uses of KNO 3 included an oxidant in gunpowder, a preservative for meats and other foods, and a medicine for treating ...

In a traditional firework a lit fuse kicks off the reaction, igniting the powder in the bottom of the shell. As the potassium nitrate burns, it lets off oxygen. The O 2 helps the charcoal and ...

Made up of 62 per cent potassium nitrate, 18 per cent sulphur and 20 per cent carbon, this produces a small display of sparks before igniting a charge of gunpowder around the sides and below the ...