A short history of gunpowder and the role of charcoal in its manufacture

Abstract

Deflagrations caused by interactions of charcoal with potassium nitrate were discovered in 9th-century China. This led quickly to the development of primitive fuzes and ballistics. Roger Bacon, a 13th-century Franciscan monk experimented in England with gunpowder. The 18th-century saw the manufacture of charcoal by the cylinder method and the development of Waltham Abbey as the centre for gunpowder production which peaked to about 20 000 barrels per year at the time of the Battle of Waterloo. Methods of gunpowder manufacture changed little over the centuries until recent times. Whereas sulphur and nitre are reproducible ingredients, a mystery enshrined optimum specifications for gunpowder charcoal. Within recent years the application of modern analytical techniques has removed some of this mystery and anatomical features and physical properties have been characterized.