AUSTRIA, WINSTON JAY, D.

BSCRIM 3 BLOCK 4

gunpowder, Any of several mixtures used as propelling charges in guns and as blasting agents in
mining. The first such explosive was black powder, a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate),
sulfur, and charcoal. It originated in the 9th century in China and made its way west in the 13th
century. The recipe was refined and finally fixed in the 14th century; black powder is still widely
used for ignition charges, primers, fuses, blank charges in military ammunition, and fireworks. In
1838 it was discovered that cotton could be made explosive by dipping it in concentrated nitric
acid, and the form of nitrocellulose known as guncotton came into use as an ingredient of
gunpowder in the 1860s. In the 1880s Paul Vieille (1854–1934) used nitrocellulose to create the
first smokeless gunpowder; modern gunpowder consists of either nitrocellulose alone or a
combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin.

EXPLOSIVES
explosive, any substance or device that can be made to produce a volume of rapidly expanding
gas in an extremely brief period. There are three fundamental types: mechanical, nuclear, and
chemical. A mechanical explosive is one that depends on a physical reaction, such as
overloading a container with compressed air. Such a device has some application in mining,
where the release of gas from chemical explosives may be undesirable, but otherwise is very
little used. A nuclear explosive is one in which a sustained nuclear reaction can be made to take
place with almost instant rapidity, releasing large amounts of energy. Experimentation has been
carried on with nuclear explosives for possible petroleum extraction purposes. This article is
concerned with chemical explosives, which account for virtually all explosive applications in
engineering.

 Nitroglycerine. ...
 Trinitrotoluene (TNT) ...
 Nitrocellulose (guncotton, pyrocotton, nitrocotton) ...
 Primary explosives such as fulminates, azides and styphnates. ...
 Gunpowder/black powder/black blasting powder. ...
 Oxidisers. ...
 Emulsion and slurry explosives.