GUNPOWDER. 
the writings of the ancients themselves for 
the proof of it. It appears too, from many 
authors and many circumstances, that this 
composition has been known to the Chi- 
nese and Indians for thousands of years. 
For some time after the invention of 
artillery, gunpowder was of a much weaker 
composition than that now in use, or that 
described by Marcus Grrncus, which was 
chiefly owing, to the weakness of their first 
pieces. Of twenty-three different compo- 
sitions, used at different times, and men- 
tioned by Tartaglia in his “ Ques. and Inv. 
lib. 3, ques. 5 the first, which was the 
oldest, contained equal parts of the three in- 
gredients. But w hen guns of modern struc- 
ture were introduced, gunpowder of the 
same composition as the present came into 
use. In the time of Tartaglia the cannon 
powder was made of four parts of nitre, 
one of sulphur, and one of charcoal ; and the 
musket-powder of forty-eight parts of nitre, 
seven parts of sulphur, and eight parts of 
charcoal ; or of eighteen parts of nitre, two 
parts of sulphur, and three parts of char- 
coal. But the modern composition is six 
parts of nitre, to one of each of the other 
two ingredients: though Mr. Napier says, 
he finds the strength commonly to be 
greatest when the proportions are, nitre 
three pounds, charcoal about nine ounces, 
and sulphur about three ounces. See his 
paper on gunpowder in the Transactions of 
the Royal Irish Academy, vol. ii. The 
cannon-powder was in meal, and the mus- 
ket-powder grained , and it is certain, that 
the graining of powder, which is a very 
considerable advantage, is a modern imr 
provement. 
To make gunpowder duly, regard is to 
be had to the purity or goodness of the 
ingredients, as well as the proportions of 
them, tor the strength of the powder de- 
pends much on that circumstance, and also 
on the due working or mixing of them to- 
gether. See Nitre. 
These three ingredients in their purest 
state being procured, long experience has 
shown that they are then to be mixed toge- 
ther in the proportion before-mentioned, to 
have the best effect, viz. three quarters of 
the composition to be nitre, and the other 
quarter made up of equal parts of the other 
two ingredients, or, which is the same thing, 
six parts nitre, one part sulphur, and one 
part charcoal. 
But it is not the due proportion of the 
materials only, which is necessary to the 
making of gopd powder, another circum- 
stance, not less essential, is the mixing 
them well together ; if this be not effec- 
tually done, some parts of the composition 
will have too much nitre in them, and 
others too little ; and in either case there 
will be a defect of strength in the powder. 
After the materials have been reduced to 
fine dust, they are mixed together, and 
moistened with water, or vinegar, or urine, 
or spirit of wine, &c. and then beaten toge- 
ther for twenty-four hours, either by hand 
or by mills, and afterwards pressed into a 
hard, firm, solid cake. When dry, it is 
grained or corned, which is done by break- 
ing the cake of powder into small pieces, 
and so running it through a sieve ; by which 
means the grains may have any size given 
them, according to the nature of the sieve 
employed, either finer or coarser ; and thus 
also the dust is separated from the grains, 
and again mixed with other manufacturing 
powder, or worked up into cakes again. 
Powder is smoothed or glazed, as it is 
called, for small arms, by the following 
operation : a hollow cylinder or cask is 
mounted on an axis, turned by a wheel ; 
this cask is half filled with powder, and 
turned for six hours, and thus by the mu- 
tual friction of the grains of powder it is 
smoothed or glazed. The fine mealy part, 
thus separated or worn off from the rest, is 
again granulated. 
The velocity of expansion of the flame of 
gunpowder, when fired in a piece of artil- 
lery, without either bullet or other body 
before it, is prodigiously great, viz. seven 
thousand feet per second, or upwards, as 
appears from the experiments of Mr. Ro- 
bins. But M. Bernoulli and M. Euler 
suspect it is still much greater; and Dr. 
Hutton supposes it may not be less, at the 
moment of explosion, than four times as 
much. 
It is this prodigious celerity of expansion 
of the flame of gunpowder which is its 
peculiar excellence, and the circumstance 
in which it so eminently surpasses all other 
inventions, either ancient or modern; for 
as to the momentum of these projectiles 
only, many of the warlike machines of the 
ancients produced this in a degree far sur- 
passing that of our heaviest cannon shot or 
shells ; but the great celerity given to these 
bodies, cannot be in the least approached 
by any other means but the flame of pow- 
der. 
To prove gunpowder. There are several 
ways of doing this. 1. By sight; thus if it 
be too black, it is a sign that it is moist, or 
