andrew fildes wrote:
>
> >andrew fildes wrote:
>
> I stand corrected - gunpowder to me always means black powder - even made
> my own as a rather dangerous teenager in the UK. I don't even remember the
> term 'black powder' being used as something distinct and different.
> AndrewF
Last post on this topic.
There is gunpowder and then there is gunpowder. The original gunpowder
is a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal and is commonly refered
to as blackpowder to distinguish it from modern propellents. It is the
most ancient explosive/propellent, having been used by the Chinese over
a thousand years ago. Modern gunpowders are also called smokeless
powder, cordite, etc and are based on nitrocellulose for "single base
powders" and nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin for "double base" powders
mixed with various inhibitors to produce a propellant with a controlled
rate of burn rather than an explosion. Blackpowder is produced as fine
or coarse, irregular granules. Modern propellants can be flakes, short
rods, short tubes, spheres, flattened spheres, etc with the individual
grains varying from almost dustlike for pistol and shotgun, up to tubes
an inch or more long and half an inch in diameter for cannon.
Oly content; I had some pictures of an Honest John rocket firing. It
used a nitrocellulose based propellant.
Jerry Liles
ex-artilleryman
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