Definition of gunpowder in English

WordNet

Noun

Plural: gunpowders

gunpowder - a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur in a 75:15:10 ratio which is used in gunnery, time fuses, and fireworks

powder

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Wiktionary

gunpowder (Noun)
An explosive mixture of saltpetre potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks.

Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘

gunpowder (n.)
A black, granular, explosive substance, consisting of an intimate mechanical mixture of niter, charcoal, and sulphur. It is used in gunnery and blasting.

OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω

gunpowder
An explosive in the form of a powder.

Sailor's Word-BookThe Sailor's Word-Book ⛵

gunpowder
The well-known explosive composition which, for its regularity of effect and convenience in manufacture and use, is still preferred for general purposes to all the new and more violent but more capricious agents. In England it is composed of 75 parts saltpetre to 10 sulphur and 15 charcoal; these proportions are varied slightly in different countries. The ingredients are mixed together with great mechanical nicety, and the compound is then pressed and granulated. On the application of fire it is converted into gas with vast explosive power, but subject to tolerably well-known laws.

Military DictionaryMilitary Dictionary and Gazetteer 💥

gunpowder
A well-known explosive mixture, whose principal employment is in the discharge, for war or sport, of projectiles from fire-arms, and for mining purposes. The ingredients in gunpowder are saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. Slightly different proportions are employed in different countries. In the United States the proportions are 75 to 76 saltpetre, 14 to 15 charcoal, and 10 sulphur. Charcoal is the combustible ingredient; saltpetre furnishes the oxygen necessary to support a rapid combustion and to change the whole mass into gas, and sulphur adds consistency to the mixture and intensity to the flame, besides rendering the powder less liable to absorb moisture; increases the volume of gas by preventing the formation of a solid potassium carbonate, and by increasing the temperature.
In the manufacture of ordinary powder, the operations usually employed are pulverizing the ingredients, incorporation, compression, granulation, glazing, drying, and dusting.
The ingredients are pulverized by placing each separately in barrels which contain bronze or zinc balls, and which are revolved rapidly for several hours.
Incorporation or thorough mixing is effected partially by the use of a rolling barrel, and completed in the rolling-mill. This consists of two cast-iron cylinders rolling round a horizontal axis in a circular trough with a cast-iron bottom. The cylinders are very heavy, and give a grinding motion, which is very effective in bringing about a thorough mixture of the three ingredients. A wooden scraper follows the rollers and keeps the composition in the middle of the trough. The charge in the trough is moistened with 2 or 3 per cent. of water before the rollers are started. A little water is added from time to time as required. This is the most important operation in the manufacture of powder. The time required is about one hour for each 50 pounds of composition. When finished the composition is called mill-cake.
Compressing.--This is next taken to the press-house, slightly moistened and arranged between brass plates, and then subjected to hydraulic pressure of about 70 tons (English tons) per square foot. Each layer is thus reduced to a hard cake.
Granulation.--The cake is broken up into grains by means of toothed rollers revolving in opposite directions, the cake being passed between them. The different-sized grains are separated by sieves between the different sets of rollers.
Glazing is effected by moistening the grains and revolving them in a rolling barrel.
Drying is done on sheets in a room heated to 140°-160°.
Dusting.--The dust is removed by revolving the powder in rolling barrels covered with coarse canvas. The dust is caught by an outside case.
There are five kinds of grain powder used in the U. S. service, distinguished as mammoth, cannon, mortar, musket, and rifle powder, all made in the same manner, of the same proportion of materials, and differing only in the size of the grain. Mammoth is employed for the heaviest sea-coast guns; cannon for smaller sea-coast guns; mortar for mortars and field- and siege-pieces; musket for rifle-muskets; and rifle for pistols. In addition to the above we have the following:
Meal powder, a fine dust containing the ingredients of ordinary gunpowder, but in which the relative proportions of these ingredients vary, according to the rate of burning desired, and the object for which the powder is to be used. Used principally in pyrotechny, and in mortar fire to communicate the flame from the charge to the shell. Also “German” or “American” “White Gunpowder,” more powerful than ordinary gunpowder, but more expensive; acts upon iron, and is very little used in gunnery.
Pebble powder, an irregular large-grain powder, very similar to American “Mammoth,” which preceded it, was made in England, 1865, by breaking ordinary press-cake with copper hammers.
Fossano powder, made in Italy, 1871, granulated by hand, is a slow-burning powder, used in large guns, notably in the 100-ton guns, one of which was recently burst, 1880, by a charge of 552 pounds of this powder. Lately the grains of this powder have been given a regular form.
Among regular grain powders made without molding are cubical, an English powder, extensively used in all their large guns, the largest being 2 inches on the edge. This is made by passing the cake between fluted rollers, which cut it into strips, and then these strips endways between a second set of rollers.
Schaghticoke, made at Hart’s Falls, N. Y., is a cubical powder made very much like the English,--the lines of fracture are, however, simply scratched on the cake (both sides), which is afterwards broken in the ordinary way.
Molded Powder.--The ingredients are the same as those of ordinary gunpowder, but each grain is separately molded.
Gen. Rodman was the first to propose the manufacture of these powders in his perforated cake, 1860; the object being to cause the powder to burn on an increasing surface, thus lessening the strain on the gun in the first moments of combustion. His powder after a few experiments was allowed to fall into disuse in the United States, but the invention was carried to Europe and developed with a smaller grain into prismatic powder, used in Europe, and especially in Germany and Russia, and particularly adapted to breech-loading cannon; the grain is a hexagonal prism in form and contains six cylindrical orifices passing entirely through it parallel to the axis, and symmetrically arranged with respect to it. The cartridge is so made that the cylindrical orifices pass through the entire length.
Hexagonal Powder.--This is the powder principally used in the United States; the grains have the shape which would be given by joining the larger bases of two frustrums of equal six-sided pyramids, and vary in size according to the piece in which the powder is to be used. This powder is believed in the United States to give the best results, and can be adapted to cannon of any caliber.
History of Gunpowder.--The origin of gunpowder as an explosive, and its application to the projection of missiles of war, are lost in the mists of obscurity. Its use in Europe can be traced only to the middle or early part of the 14th century. It is believed by many that certain experiments by Schwartz, a German monk, led to its introduction in war, but the better theory seems to be that the knowledge was obtained from the Saracens. It is probable that the invention arose in Central Asia in the regions where saltpetre occurs as an effervescence of the soil. The Chinese appropriated the discovery at a very early period, and fireworks were common in that country when Europe was roamed by the primitive savage. When Ghengis Khan invaded China, B.C. 1219, fire-arms of a primitive form appear to have been used. Passages in old writers seem also to show that when Alexander invaded India, 327 B.C., he encountered tribes that used similar weapons. The people of India doubtless obtained their knowledge from China. Wars and migrations of tribes gradually disseminated a knowledge of gunpowder over Asia and Northern Africa. The use of gunpowder is mentioned in Arabic writings in the 13th century. The Moors used it in Spain in 1312. In 1331 the king of Granada employed it in sieges. It is said to have been used by the English in the battles of Crécy, 1316. The Venetians employed it in 1380 against the Genoese. From that time to the present fire-arms have gradually supplanted other weapons.
For a long time after its introduction gunpowder was used in the form of dust or “meal powder.” Granulation was attempted to get rid of the difficulties in handling the dust, but the grained form proved too strong for the arms used, and “meal powder” continued in general use till improvements in the weapons about the close of the 16th century admitted of the other form. The granulation was at first very crude. This was remedied in time by the introduction of machinery or corning-mills in the manufacture. Though different-sized grains were at first used in large and small guns the principles involved were not studied, and afterwards one uniform size--large musket powder--was employed in all fire-arms. This step backwards may have been caused by the impurity of the ingredients and bad manufacture, which made the large grains too weak. In the early part of the present century a classification of grains was revived under the two general names of musket and cannon powder. The invention of the mercury densimeter rendered practicable an accurate determination of the specific gravity of powder and its relation to quickness of burning, but the importance of size and form of grain was first appreciated by Gen. Rodman, who, in 1859, began experiments which led at once to the introduction of mammoth powder for large guns, and later to the invention of perforated cake. The introduction of the powerful ordnance now existing in Europe has been rendered possible by improvements in this direction based upon the principles first formulated by Rodman. The latest idea on the subject is “compensating powder” (proposed by Lieut. C. A. L. Totten, of the 4th U. S. Artillery), a spherical grain of gunpowder inclosing a smaller sphere of gun-cotton. This powder remains to be made and experimented with, but it opens a field of research which must lead to valuable results.

Foolish DictionaryThe Foolish Dictionary 🤡

gunpowder
A black substance much employed in marking the boundary lines of nations.

Vulgar Tongue DictionaryDictionary of the Vulgar Tongue 👅

gunpowder
An old Woman. CANT.

Wikipedia

Gunpowder (or gun powder) is a mix of chemical substances (charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter). It burns very rapidly, and creates gases. Those gases can the propel a bullet (in a gun or rifle). The burning is too slow to destroy the gun or rifle barrel (the long metallic tube).

Gunpowder was probably invented by the Chinese, the first references of black powder, which is a form of gun powder date to the 13th century, when Roger Bacon described the formula of black powder.