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Gunpowder History Of Gunpowder GUNPOWDER Gunpowder is the oldest of all explosives. It was used by the ancient Chinese, Arabs, and people of India first. But exact directions on how to make it were not known to the western World until 1242, when Roger Bacon of Oxford University, in England published a book in which he told the ways to make gunpowder. Today gunpowder is not used as much as more powerful explosives After Roger Bacon published his formula for gunpowder, Berthold Schwarz, a German monk, developed it as a practical explosive in the thirteen hundreds. Schwarz is said to have invented a firearm which exploded shells by the action of gunpowder. Gunpowder was being used in cannons as early as thirteen forty-six.
At that time, gunpowder was actually in powder form. It had to be loaded carefully into the cannon, so that the charge would be packed properly. If it were packed too tightly, the flame would not light the powder because it couldnt get enough oxygen. But if it were packed too loosely, it couldnt build up enough gas forces to push the cannonball to its target.
A new way to make gunpowder into grains, instead of powder, was invented in the fourteen hundreds. In this method you would moisten it and pound it into a cake. Then it was broken into small bits and put into a sieve to be sifted. The pieces that came through the sieve were different shapes and would not fit together well enough to pack tightly, so that careful packing of a cannon was not necessary. When a long-barreled, rifled cannon came into use, it became necessary to slow down the burning rate of the gunpowder. Its swift explosive force would often burst the barrel of the gun, causing the man who fired it to be in almost as much danger as the man he was attempting to shoot.
Captain Rodman of the United States Army finally developed a gunpowder that was made into grains shaped into hexagonal prisms. These prisms were large and had several rounded parallel grooves in them. When the prisms were placed end to end, these grooves fitted to make a continuous channel. The flame burned outward from these grooves and inward from the surface of the prisms. This kept up a continuous flow of gases for long periods, and caused a long, slow push on the shell.
As a result, this kind of explosions could hurl the shell long distance. Smokeless powder was invented in eighteen eighty-four, and had replaced gunpowder for use in firing shells by the early nineteen hundreds. But gunpowder was still made in large quantities in the United States for many years after that. During World War One, gunpowder was used as a base in many shells, bombs, and torpedoes. heavier armor and new types of fighting equipment used in World War Two required more powerful explosives, but gunpowder was still used as a primer for the artillery shells.
Another guns in artillery or naval guns is as a charge for military salutes. An explosive is any material that, when ignited by heat or shock, undergoes rapid decomposition or oxidation. This process releases energy that is stored in the material in the form of heat and light, or by breaking down into gas compounds that occupy a much larger volume that the original. Because this expansion is very rapid, large volumes of air are pushed aside by the expanding gasses. This expansion occurs at a speed greater than the speed of sound, and so a sonic boom occurs. This explains the mechanics behind an explosion.
Explosives occur in several forms: high-order explosives which detonate, low order explosives, which burn, and primers, which may do both. High order explosives detonate. A detonation occurs only in a high order explosive. Detonations are usually incurred by a shock wave that passes through a block of the high explosive material.
The shock wave breaks apart the molecular bonds between the atoms of the substance, at a rate approximately equal to the speed of sound traveling through that material. In a high explosive, the fuel and oxidizer are chemically bonded, and the shock wave breaks apart these bonds, and re-combines the two materials to produce mostly gasses. T. N. T. , ammonium nitrate, and R.
D. X. are examples of high order explosives. Low order explosives do not detonate; they burn, or undergo oxidation. when heated, the fuel (s) and oxidizer (s) combine to produce heat, light, and gaseous products. Some low order materials burn at about the same speed under pressure as they do in the open, such as black powder.
Others, such as gunpowder, which is correctly called nitrocellulose, burn much faster and hotter when they are in a confined space, such as the barrel of a firearm; they usually burn much slower than black powder when they are ignited in unpressurized conditions. Black powder, nitrocellulose, and flash powder are good examples of low order explosives. Primers are kind of different to the explosive field. Some of them, such as mercury fulminate, will function as a low or high order explosive. They are usually more sensitive to friction, heat, or shock, than the high or low explosives. Most primers perform like a high order explosive, except that they are much more sensitive.
Still others merely burn, but when they are confined, they burn at a great rate and with a large expansion of gasses and a shock wave. Primers are usually used in a small amount to initiate, or cause to decompose, a high order explosive, as in an artillery shell. But, they are also frequently used to ignite a low order explosive; the gunpowder in a bullet is ignited by the detonation of its primer. For many centuries gunpowder was mainly used to shoot the shot from guns. But it has the disadvantage of producing clouds of smoke when it explodes. Most gunpowder today is used in certain types of safety fuses, in fireworks, and as an igniter for rockets.
It is also sometimes used in industrial blasting where powerful explosives are not required. When gunpowder is used as a blasting powder, it contains less saltpeter and more sulfur and charcoal. Modern gunpowder, usually called black powder, is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Saltpeter usually makes up 75 percent of the mixture, charcoal makes up 15 percent, and sulfur makes up 10 percent. After it is mixed, the moist material goes to a mill where it is run between heavy rollers. It is the placed in another machine that makes it into a meal.
The meal is compressed in a press to form a solid cake. this cake is then broken into grains of the desired sizes. The grains are glazed to break off sharp points and to fill the pores in the grains so that the powder will not get wet or dusty. After the grains have been glazed, they are dried and joined together. Sometimes gunpowder grains are molded into prisms. Gunpowder has been used in many major plot and schemes to over throw the government or assassinations.
Like the Gunpowder Plot. The gunpowder plot was a plan to blow up the English Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605, When King James the first was to be present. A group headed by Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes originated the plan. This group resented the hostile attitude of the government toward the Roman Catholic church.
But the plot was discovered and most of the people in the group were killed. Public hostility toward Catholics increased in England. The English hold an annual festival on November 5, When they burn Guy Fawkes in effigy. In memory of the Gunpowder Plot a formal search of the vaults beneath the houses of Parliament is still made before each new session.
A grenade was one of the first actual explosives that the army used in combat against other people. A grenade is a small explosive bomb that may be thrown , or may be fired from a rifle. Fragmentation grenades contain a notched wire or coil that would shatter into many pieces when the grenade exploded and would go flying every where. Chemical grenades are filled with gas, smoke, or white phosphorous. Illuminating grenades are used at night to light up land areas so troops could see. Grenades were originally used in the 1400 s.
In the 1600 s and 1700 s specially trained men used them. Today, they are a common weapon of all infantry soldiers. yes, thats right they there used to a profession in the army of certain countries specifically for throwing grenades. These men were called Grenadiers. A grenadier was a French solider in the 1600 s trained to throw hand grenades. Grenadiers were selected for their strength, nerve, and initiative.
They wore distinctive, colorful uniforms. Gradually, other European countries created grenadier units. They took the best soldiers from other units to organize these elite battalions. Improvements in small arms made grenade bowling suicidal by 1800.
But armies still maintained grenadier units as key reserves. Some European armies still have regiments that carry grenadier titles. For example, the British Grenadier Guards, which traces its title to Waterloo in 1815, helps guard Buckingham Palace in London. And now to discuss the most common use of gunpowder today other than in bullets and explosives, Fireworks. Fireworks are combinations of gunpowder and other ingredients that explode with loud noises and colorful sparks and flames when they burn. Fireworks are also called pyrotechnics.
Fireworks that only make a loud bang are called firecrackers. Fireworks are dangerous because they contain gunpowder they should be handled only by adult or with adult supervision. Fireworks handled improperly can explode and cause serious injury to the people within the range of the explosion. Most fireworks are made by packing gunpowder and other chemicals into cardboard tubes.
Coarse gunpowder is used shoot rockets into the air. Finer and more loosely packed gunpowder explodes to destroy the rocket once it is in the air. Manufactures add small amounts of special chemicals to the gunpowder to create colors. They add sodium compounds to make yellows, strontium compounds to make red, and copper and barium compounds for blue and green.
Charcoal is another substance that can be added. It provides the rocket with a sparkling flaming tail.
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Research essay sample on Guy Fawkes November 5
