Small article about Blackpowder
 

ReHerakhte 11-26-2005, 02:24 AM G'Day all,

In line with the threads about manufacturing weapons and ammo, this article may stimulate a little more interest in blackpower weapons. It has been taken from the Cronaca.com archives (weblink to article http://www.cronaca.com/archives/001427.html )


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September 11, 2003

Recreating medieval gunpowder

Several sources for this story, but Australia's ABC has the most thorough coverage so far (and the only article with pictures):


Medieval recipes for gunpowder produce nearly the same firepower as today's manufactured equivalent, according to recent weapons tests, providing clues as to how the British fleet became one of the largest fighting forces in the world.


Robert Smith who is Head of Conservation at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, told the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Manchester this week that the medieval gunpowder was made from ancient recipes or formulas still surviving from the 14th Century. . .


He and colleagues recreated the gunpowder - essentially a mixture of sulphur, charcoal and saltpetre - from scratch. They harvested raw sulphur from the hills of Iceland and burned alder wood in the ground to create charcoal. The third ingredient, saltpetre, was obtained from the nitrates left over from manure collected from stables.


The medieval gunpowder was packed into a replica Loshult gun, a small canon-like gun from Sweden which dates from the 14th Century. The newly made medieval gunpowder was able to fire a lead ball as far as 945 metres (and reaching speeds up to 200 m per second), compared to a distance of 1100 metres for the commercial gun powder.


Posted by David on September 11, 2003 06:21 PM

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Cheers,

Kevin

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DeaconR 11-26-2005, 08:35 AM Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

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