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The History and Uses of Gunpowder


             The type of gunpowder used in this time was known as meal or serpentine powder.
             It was explosive but was very unstable if not stored properly it would form lumps which.
             would burn but not explode. Serpentine powder could not be packed too tightly in the.
             barrel of the firearm because if it is compressed too much it loses explosive force.
             Serpentine powder was the main propellant for all firearms until the middle of the 1600's.
             Corned or granulated powder overcame serpentine powder in the use of weapons because.
             of its increased stability. Corned powder had much more force behind its explosion.
             Smokeless gunpowder was developed in the 1800's. An early kind of smokeless.
             gunpowder was called guncotton. Guncotton is obtained when cotton is soaked in.
             mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids. Guncotton exploded powerfully but was.
             dangerous to manufacture so people stopped using it in the 1850's.
             In 1887 the sweetish chemist Alfred Nobel created a colloided powder that is still.
             used today in ammunition. Gunpowder that is used in modern ammunition is placed.
             inside a cylinder that is sealed with a head. This head is the projectile that will be fired.
             out of the barrel. As the gunpowder explodes inside the cylinder of the bullet the.
             pressure is sealed in the back of the bullet so it forces the projectile (head of the bullet).
             out of the barrel. The more powder in the casing of the bullet the greater the explosion.
             therefore the velocity of the projectile increases. The explosion inside the cylinder of.
             a bullet is caused by a spark of heat created by the firing pin when it strikes the small.
             flint in the bullet. The strength of the gunpowder in a bullet or the amount of work.
             which a certain quantity of gunpowder is capable of performing, depends on.
             the mass of the powder and the velocity with which its gaseous particles are evolved.
             The velocity of the gaseous particles depends upon the purity and the density.


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