Firearms History, Technology & Development: Propellants: Black Powder... https://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/propellants-black-powder-ii...

Firearms History, Technology &

Development
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Propellants: Black Powder - II
Blog Archive In our last post, we studied the basic components of black powder and how
they were obtained throughout history. In this post, we will study the
► 2017 (6)
history of its manufacture.
► 2016 (71)
► 2015 (65) The three ingredients, namely potassium nitrate (or sometimes sodium
► 2014 (74) nitrate), charcoal and sulfur are ground up into powder and mixed
► 2013 (39) together. In the earliest processes, the dry ingredients were all put into a
► 2012 (84)
grinding apparatus (usually a mortar and pestle) and ground together into
a powder mixture called a "serpentine". The exact proportions of the three
► 2011 (58)
components in the middle ages were varied from country to country. It is
▼ 2010 (155) known that England was using a 6:2:1 ratio by weight in the 1350s, while
► December (16) the Germans were using a ratio of 4:1:1 during the same period. The
► November (11) French also had black powder, but it is not known what ratio they were
► October (12) using. In fact, the various proportions of the ingredients and the technique
► September (6) of making high quality charcoal were both closely guarded state secrets
► August (23)
throughout most European kingdoms. There were a few issues with black
powder manufacturing during this period. One was that the mixing process
► July (24)
was highly dangerous since the materials are highly inflammable. The
▼ June (22) second was that there wasn't much consistency in the final product, so one
Revolver: Colt Single Action Army batch of powder would have better shooting properties than another
a.k.a. The Peace...
batch. The third issue was that since the powders of the three ingredients
Revolver: Walker Colt & Colt Dragoon
were not the same sized particles, if the powder was transported by cart
Revolvers
to a battlefield, chances were very good that the vibrations would make
Revolvers: Colt Paterson
the smaller ingredient particles settle in the bottom of the box. This
Revolvers: Pepper-Box Revolver
meant that the serpentine powder would need to be mixed again
Revolvers: Basics
thoroughly, just before use.
Bullets: Modern Bullets - II
Bullets: Modern Bullets - I One of the major inventions to improve this situation came out of Europe
Bullets: Conical Expanding Bullets in the late 1400s or so -- a process called "corning". The powder
Bullets: Swaging manufacturers of medieval Europe had realized early on that the way to
Bullets: Shotgun Pellets reduce a large portion of the risks of the manufacturing process was to wet
Bullets: Early Bullets the ingredients with water or wine first and grind them separately and
Bullets: Basics then mix the wet ingredients together. Then the resulting black-powder
Propellants: Smokeless Powders could be dried in the sun before use. They also realized that the
Propellants: Black Powder - II ingredients could be mixed wet and pressed into cakes of a given uniform
Propellants: Black Powder - I density (1.7 gm/cc is ideal). The cakes could then be dried in the sun
Propellants: Basics where they become hard and brittle.
Barrel Making: Making a Modern Steel
Barrel - Part II
Barrel Making: Making a Modern Steel
Barrel - Part I
Barrel Making: The Rise of Steel Barrels
Barrel Making: Fake Damascus Barrels
Barrel Making: Pattern Welded or
Damascus Barrels ...
Barrel Making: Pattern Welded or
Damascus Barrels ...
► May (25)
► April (16)

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Firearms History, Technology & Development: Propellants: Black Powder... https://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/propellants-black-powder-ii...

About Me
The Editor Black powder pressed into cakes of uniform density

View my complete profile The cakes could then be broken into grains or corns and these grains could
then be sorted into standardized sizes by passing them through various
sieves. This whole process was a major improvement, because it fixes all
the problems enumerated earlier. In fact, all black powder manufactured
Popular Posts to this day is still corned.
What are the
differences between
AK-47, AKM, AK-56,
AK-74 and AK-101?
The AK family of assault
rifles are pretty
widespread around the world, because
of their lower cost of manufacturing,
lower tooling costs, ...
Revolvers: Pepper-Box
Revolver
The first repeating
revolver type weapons
and predecessors of
modern revolvers are Different containers of corned black powder sorted by grain size
called pepper-box revolvers. The name
has to do with the ... The Europeans experimented with manufacturing various grain sizes and
Hammer Fired vs. Striker determined that larger grains are more suitable for larger guns and
Fired cannons and smaller grains, which are quick burning, are more suitable for
In the world of modern pistols. Hence, they were the first to produce different types of
firearms which use gunpowder, each of uniform grain sizes. Because of this uniformity and
centerfire cartridges , consistency, European gunpowder was generally regarded as higher quality
there are two major than gunpowder manufactured in America or Asia. However, not all
types of mechanisms used to trigger the European countries were producing quality black powder. W.W. Greener's
cartridge prim... book, The Gun and its Development from the mid 1850s, mentions that
Pistols: Derringers powder in England is of various grades and makers like Curtis & Harvey and
The name "derringer" is Pigou, Wilks & Lawrence make some quality powders. He says that a grain
often associated with a size classified as "African" is very good for export purposes, but cautions to
class of pistols that are buy a powder marked "Brazil" designed for export to South America saying
small and designed to be that it looks very attractive because it is highly glazed, but is actually a
carried in a coat pocket, very poor quality powder. Apparently, the South Americans valued its shiny
woman... looks more than its shooting properties and the author mentions that the
Rifling: Manufacturing: only reason to buy this is for trading purposes. He says that Spanish powder
Button Rifling quality varies upon locality and that the Swedes and Norwegians make
In our last post, we very good quality powder, but unfortunately in limited quantities for their
studied a method of own markets only. He also says that German powders also vary depending
rifling called Broach on locality, but some are very high quality, sometimes even exceeding the
Rifling . Now we will finest English powders of the time. He classifies the powders made by the
study another method of rifling called French (and all the French possessions at the time) to be the worst quality
Button Rifling ....
and full of dust, due to the fact that the manufacture of black powder was
Concealed Weapons
a monopoly held by the French government at that time and they didn't
In our last post about allow imports of black powder from other countries either.
combined firearms , two
of the examples (the
By the 1750s, the ratio of 15:3:2 by weight (i.e. 75% potassium nitrate, 15%
whip pistol and King
charcoal and 10% sulfur) was becoming common in most of Europe and by
Henry VIII's mace) are
also examples of a conce...
1800, it was the ratio used around the world and is still the standard today.
Testing Firearms: Proof
Test The process of manufacturing corned black powder is still the same, except
that since the 1800s, the process of grinding and mixing the materials has
The first type of testing
we will study is the
been largely automated. In the early 1800s, the common type of mill used
Proof Test . The idea for grinding was the edge runner mill. This is an ancient type of mill that
behind such a test is to was invented in China in the 5th century AD and spread to Europe about
verify the strength of the barrel, 800 years later. It was commonly used for hulling rice and crushing ore. It
breech and ... consists of one or more heavy disks set on their edges and a circular lower
Shotguns: Actions and Designs milling trough or tray. The disks roll around the trough in a circular path
The early history of true shotguns and crush everything in their way.

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Firearms History, Technology & Development: Propellants: Black Powder... https://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/propellants-black-powder-ii...

begins in the 1800s,

when people began to
use them to hunt birds.
During that time, the
flintlock firing ...

Metal Treatments:
Browning and Bluing
Since the early days of
gun-making, people
were looking for
different ways to better
protect the iron and steel parts of their
weapons. Ther...
Actions: Lever Action
In the last post , we
studied a popular
mechanism called the
bolt-action . Now we
will study another
mechanism that is also still being
used...

Public domain image courtesy wikipedia.com

These mills were usually driven by water power and therefore the powder
factories were located close to rivers. Edge runner mills are still used in
food processing today and are seen in some chocolate factories.

Most modern processes use a ball mill to do the job. It consists of a hollow
cylinder into which the raw materials are put in. There are also a number
of balls made of lead, brass or bronze put into the cylinder. These
materials are chosen because they are non-sparking in nature. The
materials are put in the cylinder and water or alcohol is added to keep it
wet. The cylinder is then closed and rotated about its axis for about 3
hours.

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Firearms History, Technology & Development: Propellants: Black Powder... https://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/propellants-black-powder-ii...

The balls rub among themselves and grind up the raw materials between
them into a fine powder. After some time, the cylinder is opened and the
ground up material is extracted. In some cases, the three ingredients are
ground up separately and then combined later. In other cases, the three
ingredients are put into the mill simultaneously and ground up together.
The three powdered ingredients are mixed together when wet and then
pressed into cakes, which are dried and then broken up into grains which
are sorted by sieves into various standardized sizes.

Black powder was the only propellant used between the 1200s to the late
1800s or so. One of the problems with black powder is that it leaves behind
a lot of residue, which means that guns need to be cleaned every few shots
or so. The invention of smokeless powders in the late 1800s reduced the
need for black powder, since smokeless powders burn cleaner and with
more power than black powder. These days, the only users of black powder
are those that wish to hunt with weapons similar to what their ancestors
used.
Posted by The Editor at 10:36 PM
Labels: Black Powder, Gunpowder, Propellants

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