GUNPOWDER AND ITS MANUFACTURE.; Where and How it is Made The Materials Where Fou

[beowulf]

https://www.nytimes.com/1861/08/10/archives/gunpowder-and-its-manufacture-where-and-how-it-is-made-the.html

RED BADGER - WARNING this article describes the formula for Black Powder and under no circumstances is the website or any person associated with the management of the site to be held responsible for the experimentation of any items in the aforementioned document!   

[Winter Hawk]

Fascinating!  Thank you for posting that!

~WH~

[beowulf]

found it interesting , and figured other shooters would as well ! 

[Red Badger]

Black powder is dangerous and the creation of it should not be attempted by anyone without a whole lot of thought and safety preparation and pre-planning....

[graybear]

When I was in high school, I went to the school library and got the formula for black powder out of the encyclopedias. Then I went to the chemistry teacher to get some sulfur, used some of my potassium nitrate from a bio class I was taking at the local state university, and some hardwood charcoal and whipped up some powder. It burned real good and I made some targets by putting wet
powder in bottle caps and shooting them with .22's. I also made some aluminum foil packs after I corned the powder w/a nylon comb on a piece of plank so there weren't any sparks. Those exploded nicely too.