Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A.
Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Gun Powder
Propellant or Power charge
mixture of chemicals of various compositions
designed to propel the projectile.
By means of its expansive force of gas when
bummed.
The Development of Gun Powder
Most controversial
Powders and explosives are at most times credited to the Chinese and the Arabs.
- pyrotechnic composition of sorts --fireworks long before anything of the kind was
known in Europe.
- no warrant for considering that they had invented guns and gun powder.
Chinese knew about saltpeter-based gunpowder in 1000AD, according to Prof. J.K.
Partington, a British Chemist.
Where it was discovered, who first used it for guns, and who invented it is still a mystery
by a lack of proof beyond doubt as to the claim of various writers as to who invented the
gunpowder and realized its capabilities.
The Development of Gun Powder
Two of the most popular individual in the discovery of gun powder:
* Roger Bacon (1242 A.D.) - Franciscan monk
- first European to describe in detail the process of making gunpowder
- " De Mirabili Potestate Artis et Naturae” (On the Marvelous
Power of Art and Nature), including an anagram.
Anagram- was only re-arranged and properly punctuated by a British
Artillery Officer named Colonel Hime, and it read —" but of saltpeter taken seven-part,
five of young hazel twig and five of sulfur, and so they wilt call up thunder and
destruction of thou know the art’.
- working gunpowder formula
The Development of Gun Powder
Berthold Schwartz – (Constantin Anklitzen)
- mysterious monk of Freiburg
- experimenting on some powder in a cast iron vessel
he ignited a charge and thus view off the lid, and from this deduced the
principle of containing a charge in a tube and propelling a shot
(Encyclopedia of ammunition).
Another person in the year 1325 A.D. wrote his own literary work entitled “De
Offices Regnum’, which illustrated the firing of a cannon.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A.
Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Explosives
- any substance that may cause an explosion by its sudden
decomposition or combustion. It is material either a pure single substance or
a mixture of substances which is capable of producing an explosion by its
energy.
Classification of Explosives
1. Propellants or low explosives - burns but do not explode and function
by producing gas that produces an
explosion.
2. Primary explosive or initiators - explodes or detonate when they are
heated or subjected to shock.
3. High explosives - detonate under the influence of the shock of the
explosion of a primary explosive.
Other forms of Explosives
• Nitroglycerine (NG) - high explosive substance widely used in industrial
explosives.
- main component of many dynamites.
- oily liquid made of nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and
glycerine.
• Trinitrotoluene (TNT) - is the most widely used explosive usually used in
military explosives.
• RDX - hexogen or cyclonite o, cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine. It is the
most important military explosive used today.
• Bomb - a hollow projectile of iron generally spherical containing an
explosive material that is fired by the concussion of by time fuse.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
The Black Powder
oldest known explosive
initially made from saltpeter (75%), charcoal (15%), and sulfur (10%).
mixture is ground into fine dust, called “Serpentine”
a “corned powder was used to replace serpentine, for being more stable, due to
its high sensitivity leading to accidents modifications had been made to develop
other forms.
whatever forms or composition of black powders there is generally a great
disadvantage of this powder.
Smokeless Powder
problems in the use of black powder were later remedied with the
introduction of smokeless powder.
According to Harrison, Captain E. Schultze of the Prussian Army made the
1st successful use of smokeless powder in the shotgun in the year 1864.
nitroglycerine compound was first discovered in 1846.
• Nitrocellulose - basic ingredient
- first produced by adding nitric acid to cellulose
fiber.
M. Vieille of French - developed the first smokeless powder for riffle in the year 1884
named it “Poudre B” taken after Gen. Boulanger’s name.
Alfred Nobel - invented a smokeless powder with nitroglycerine (40% and
nitrocellulose (60%) as the main composition called it “Ballistite” in 1887.
In Great Britain, they utilized picric acid in addition to cellulose powder which they
called ‘Lyddite’ while in Germany TNT (Tri-nitrololeune) was used.
In the year 1889, Prof. Abel, a British War dept. Chemists developed “Cordite” a
smokeless powder with the same composition as Nobel in the form of cords or sticks.
In the early 1890s smokeless powder had replaced black powder and became uniformly
used worldwide by the year 1900.
Propellant (Gun Powder)
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
Thank you for Listening
Retome, Rexille Joyce A. Patacsil, Christine Cate B. Odono, Kimberlyn F.
