Chronology of Black Powder

DEVELOPMENT OF FLASHING POWDER

Saltpetre, the principal ingredient of Black Powder first appears in the writings of Arabian, Abd Allah, in 1200.

Descriptions of fireworks, "Roman Candles", and flash powder are brought from China to the West by traders. The first to do so was not Marco Polo, since he did not return to Venice until 1299. As well, it would not have been his father nor uncle, whose voyage to the orient preceded his. They did not return from Cathay, after failing to gain an audience with the ruler, until 1269.

At the time of the Polos' journeys, China's ruler, was the Mongol, Kublai's Khan. His brother, Hugul, was the ruler of Persia, the eastern extent of the Mongol empire. The trade route between these points, both by land and sea, was already soundly in place by the time of the Polos. Across this route, and between the courts of its rulers continual government and diplomatic exchange took place.

Thus an EXCHANGE of technical information was entirely possible, and to the purpose of maintaining that empire, far exceeding just probable. Whether such technology originated in China, or in the Middle East, is still open to some question.

c.1250, Middle East

DESCRIPTION OF BLACK POWDER BY MARCUS GRAECUS

In Liber Ignum (The Book of Fire), Marcus Graecus describes Saltpeter and gun powder (but not by that name). Liber Ignum mentions both propulsive uses, as in rockets, and explosive uses, as in guns.

This work is probably a translation, or more properly, and adaptation of an Arabic work of the time that made its way into the "Roman" world via Constantinople.

Remember, this is the time of Richard I of England, and the Third Crusade. Many material objects that were "liberated" from the Moslem held Holy Lands, returned with the warriors to their home lands, or fell into the hands of The Church. The Church, or those connected with it, was nearly the sole source of written material in the Western world at this time.

DESCRIPTION BY ROGER BACON

CHANGE IN STANDARD COMPOSITION

England standardized on 6/1/2 of KNO/S/C. This varied considerably from the German standard of 4/1/1.

This news coming to us in 1350 points to two outstanding facts. First, as listed in the companion chronologies, the battles of Crecy and Agincourt are where the first use of firearms is mentioned. They took place about 1312. In forty short years, the differing effectiveness of Black Powder had been discovered, and sufficient arms were present that varied compositions by differing units of an army, or in fact individual gun crews posed some kind of a problem that required standardization.

Second, both the English and the Germans are mentioned _ the French it can be assumed we also using Black Powder. Thus we can assume its general proliferation in arms across the European continent.

A corollary is of course available: It took from 1250 to 1312, sixty years, for arms somewhat competent to the European battlefields to be developed and deployed.  

DEVELOPMENT OF CORNED POWDER

The mechanical mixture of the ingredients was changed to a form in which the elements would not separate. This was accomplished by mixing the ingredients as uniformly as possible, and then wetting it into clumps. These clumps were then mechanically broken up (a dangerous task) into kernels. Hence the term CORNing.

Prior to this time, a simple, sifted, mechanical mixture of the ingredients was used. With rough handling of the powder containers, as was common to travel in solid wheel wagons over the primitive roads of the time, the smaller ingredients would settle to the whatever part of the container that was the bottom during transport. This produced great differences in samples vended from the container, and consequent variation in the force of propulsion.

By more closely, and certainly more consistently approaching the optimum mixture in every sample, corned powder developed higher average breech pressures. This made it unsuitable for most of the current arms. Because of the longer life span and higher cost of cannons, small arms of new manufacture adopted the new powder first. Cannons followed several decades later.

Manufacture of Black Powder takes place in a facility called a mill. The mill, much like that used to produce flour from grain, is used to crush or crumble the caked mixture into granules. These are selected for various purposes or returned to the batch for reprocessing.

The first recorded powder mill was, Milton (Mill Town) Massachusetts. Today, Milton is but a short drive from Boston, but at the time, Milton was considered to be way out in the country, a safe distance away from Boston in the case of a mishap, and located on the Neponset river which supplied water power to the mills.

Fifty short years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the arrival of the Puritans, the settlers have moved out into the woods and secured it sufficiently to look toward reducing their reliance on supplies of Black Powder from the mother country. Black Powder is what kept the settlers alive on the frontier some fifty to a hundred miles from their primary settlements.

Vital to their life, Black Powder was instrumental in providing the game they ate, in warding off the ever increasing number of savage attacks, and even to start the life saving fire of the wet woods traveler. In another hundred years it would become vital to the final security of the new homeland within the boundaries of their frontiers.

Across this hundred years, few such mills were built. The British restricted manufacture, and controlled the importation of powder by the Colonies. With the increases in tension of the 1770's, government authorities restricted the amount of available powder to the minimum they thought the Colonist required for survival.

CHANGE IN STANDARD COMPOSITION

Generally, around the world, Black Powder came to be standardized at 15/2/3 or 15/3/2 of KNO/S/C, both to the same effect. This allowed for more standardization of arms chamber strength, and the opportunity to use powder from various sources _ hopefully your enemy's.

It is in this period that sound ballistic experiments are undertaken, the results of which prevail to this day. Closed bomb pressure measurement comes into use. Pendulum measurement of rifle ball effects are refined. We are learning what really happens inside firearms, rather than relying upon guess and superstition.

World standardization, or nearly so, would lead to the easy use of foreign powders by the Confederate States in their War of Secession.

DUPONT POWDER MILL ESTABLISHED

DuPont established his first powder mill on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington DE. The creek provided the power source, and cooling water for the mill.

DuPont's product was effective, but not the ultimate available. Most shooters preferred the "English Powder" still imported after the successful American Revolution.

In these times, "gunpowder" was just gunpowder. The granulation varieties we know today were not available as known classes of performance. One bought Joe's powder or Jim's powder because it worked better in ones particular arm. Governments bought a given powder because of its price and availability, or possibly the favor involved.

Among civilians, this Ford vs. Chevy fashion of thought persisted until recent times. Some individuals were very certain in espousing that Remington ammunition was far, far superior to that produced by Winchester, and vice versa.

DUPONT BECOMES AMERICA'S LARGEST POWDER PRODUCER

DEVELOPMENT OF GRANULATIONS FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

With more accurate testing methods, it was discovered that different granulations of corned powder were appropriate to different applications. This resulted in today's grading system using the letters "F" and "g". The little "g" stands for Granulation, while the "F" stands for the size of screen mesh the granule will pass through.

The smallest granulation commonly available is FFFFg (spoken: "4F"). It is used principally in the priming pan of flintlocks, but has some application in strong but small chambered revolvers of .22 to .32 caliber.

FFFg ("3F") is usually recommended for muzzle loading rifles of .50 caliber or less. FFg is used in larger rifles, whether cartridge loaded or not. It also performs well in target class loads in cartridge pistols when the smaller internal dimensioned modern cartridge case is used.

Large granulation is termed Fg and is used principally in cannons, though it is applicable to large bore (10 gauge and up) shotguns and double rifles of 8, 6, and 4 bore.

DOMINANT SUPPLIERS TO THE UNION FORCES

SUPPLIERS TO THE CONFEDERATE FORCES

The Sycamore Powder Mills, Nashville, TN produced the largest amount for the Confederate need. This plant was taken over by DuPont at war's end and remained in production until World War I.

WESTERN US POWDER PRODUCTION

The California Powder Works produced its first powder in 1864. Economic production through the use of Chinese labor made their product a viable adjunct to eastern sources for the Union. Saltpeter from Eastern sources was somewhat in short supply. Its initial and transportation costs would have been prohibitive. This was overcome by its importation from India.

It is interesting to note that CPW later became first supplier of "smokeless" powder to the US government. Developed by WC Peyton, "Peyton" powder was composed of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, ammonium picrate.

Smokeless powder is never fully without smoke. Evolution moved through "semi smokeless" and various mixtures of black and the current smokeless. This was not done so much to reduce the visible smoke, but to reduce the amount of deposits left in the bore after firing, and the corrosive nature of them.

MILITARY DROPS BLACK POWDER AS PRINCIPAL SMALL ARMS PROPELLANT

With the adoption of the Krag Jorgensen rifle, chambered for .30_40 smokeless powder, jacketed bullet round, both Black Powder and naked lead bullets began to step aside as the dominant propellant and projectile for this country's military arms. This was brought about mostly by the mechanical advances driving the development and improvement of the magazine fed rifle, and the machine gun.

The military was striving to multiply the effectiveness of each fighting man by increasing the rate of fire that could be laid on the target, and by increasing the range at which that fire could be delivered. The latter required higher velocities, which called for smaller diameter projectiles. Since Black Powder residue fouled bores, and was more pronounced about doing so in smaller bores, few shots could be fired before cleaning the bore was required. The change to the lesser fouling, emerging smokeless powder was inevitable.

The recoil driven mechanisms of both the machine gun and the newly developed auto loading pistols could not long tolerate the continual build up of residue. As well, the new technology of gas operated se

Black powder continued to be used in military revolver cartridges for quite some time, as there were great stocks of these. Black Powder rifle ammunitions, and the arms that used them were diverted to the country's National Guard units. These arms saw their last use when these units were pressed into service in the Spanish American War of 1898_1900.

Artillery of all forms continued to use Black Powder as a propellant into the 1970's and 1980's, when supplanted by newer propellants not accurately classified as either black nor smokeless.

American civilian use continued Black Powder production at quite high levels for some time. Civilian life cycle for an individual arm far exceeded that of the innovative military. Many superb, or at least fully serviceable older arms were used on both the hunting and target fields. Because of either the materials or construction involved in their manufacture, these arms could not safely, either acutely or chronically endure the increased chamber pressures of the modern smokeless powder cartridges. Ammunition companies continued to produce Black Powder loadings well into the 1950's, and possibly beyond.

Muzzle loading long arms, requiring Black Powder, never left the scene. To this day, new manufacture Trade Rifles are sold all over the world, particularly in more primitive, and poor regions. These arms are identical in pattern to those offered by the French and British fur trading firms of the 1600's, like The Hudson Bay Company.

PYRODEX BLACK POWDER SUBSTITUTE DEVELOPED

Dan Pawlak, in conjunction with Hornady Bullet Co. produced a viable substitute for black powder. While still smoking, and somewhat hygroscopic (moisture absorbing), it produces less fouling, and is NOT classified as an explosive by U. S. government. This latter is important concerning restrictions, and cost of shipping.

GEARHART OWENS BEGINS BLACK POWDER PRODUCTION

In the early 1970's, DuPont's plant was destroyed by an explosion and fire. While uncommon with modern safety systems in modern times, such events were quite common in years past.

DuPont rebuilt is production facilities, but decided to concentrate its attention on more modern chemistry. In 1975 it sold these facilities and operations to the Gearhart Owens company.

More recently, DuPont also divested itself of its smokeless powder operations. These were sold to the IMR powder company, which continues to offer the entire former line as well as additions to it.

DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK POWDER STILL HAS NOT CEASED!

Driven by resurgent interest in American History, firms around the world are producing replica, copy, and style copy arms of the entire period of American growth.

Sportsmen have contributed astonishing amounts of capital and personal effort to increase the health and population of game animals across the Americas. Black Powder Only hunts in may states have extended the hunting season for those who will embrace this classic propellant.

G.O., Elephant, and Harvey and Clay, continue to bring true Black Powder to the marketplace. Each company is striving to gain the favor of modern shooters by improving the characteristics of their products, whether those shooters utilize earlier or modern designs.