Black Powder - X: Mixing the Ingredients

In our last post, we saw that by the 18th century, many countries had settled on a process of making black powder by first grinding the ingredients separately, then wetting them and then combining them and grinding the mixture together. The initial grinding of the ingredients was done separately for safety reasons, since each ingredient of black powder cannot explode by itself, without the presence of the other two. In our last post, we'd studied the various machines they used to grind the ingredients up separately. In today's post, we will study the second half of the process (i.e.) where they mix the ingredients together and grind the grains of the combined mixture again to their final sizes (As we saw before, good quality gunpowder has uniform grain sizes).

The second half of the process is more dangerous because this is where all the ingredients of black powder are being combined together, whereas in the previous step they were handled separately. We will study how the process was done with a view to reduce the risks. Our reference is from notes published by Oscar Guttman in 1895 describing how black powder was manufactured.

After grinding the three ingredients separately, manufacturers in some countries, such as Germany and the UK, performed a preliminary mixing operation in a special mixing-drum. The drum was generally made of a non-sparking metal, such as copper or brass. The drum has a shaft through it, with eight rows of bronze fork-shaped arms fixed to the shaft. The drum rotates in one direction and the shaft in the opposite direction, with the shaft rotating at about 2x the rate of the drum rotation speed. For instance, if the drum is rotating clockwise at 40 revolutions per minute, the shaft is set to rotate counter-clockwise at 80 revolutions per minute. After mixing for about five minutes, the drum is emptied and the contents are sifted by hand to remove undesirable substances, such as wood chips, nails, leaves and other such foreign substances that may have fallen into the mixture. This preliminary mixed black powder is called a green charge. This preliminary mixing process was generally used by British manufacturers and private German manufacturers only, most other manufacturers went directly into the next step described below.

The ingredients were generally combined in two different ways, depending on where the black powder was being manufactured. In France, Sweden, Austria, German military factories etc., mixing drums were preferred for this process. In the UK, Switzerland and privately-owned German factories, incorporating-mills were mostly used. We saw some details about the drums and incorporating mills in our previous post, we will study more about that here.

For mixing drums, the technology is the same as that in the previous post (i.e.) fill a drum with the wet ingredients and a large number of balls made of brass. Then, rotate the drum for a few hours at a rate of around 20-30 revolutions per minute and periodically wet the ingredients during the process.

An incorporating mill.

The illustration above shows an incorporating mill used for mixing the ingredients together. Certain features in the design are there to prevent accidental explosions. The bed (B) is made of oak-wood blocks set on edge. This reduces the danger of an explosion from the runner stones (A and A1) dropping suddenly on to the bed after passing over a lump. As can be seen in the second illustration, the shaft (C) is square and can move vertically in its housing (D and D1). In case the runner has to go over a hard lump on the bed, it will lift on the one side alone. The mechanism is driven by a system of gears (G and G1) from below. In order to prevent any powder from falling through to the driving mechanism, the driveshaft and gears are cut off from the bed by the stuffing box (E) and the conical center-piece (F).

In another variation, the mill was designed so that there was always an adequate gap between the runners and the bed, so that there was no chance of a runner slamming on to the bed.

In earlier times, the runners were mostly made of stone (after all, the technology did come from olive-oil manufacturers), but by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the runners were generally made of chilled cast-iron, which were ground and polished very well so that the running surfaces are quite smooth. In France, the mills generally mixed about 55 lbs. of ingredients at a time, whereas in England, the maximum amount was 50 lbs. for rifle powder and 60 lbs. for cannon powder.

The process starts by taking the three ingredients (or the preliminary mixed "green charge" above) and spreading it as thinly as possible on the bed by using a wooden rake and moistening the ingredients with distilled water. As the ingredients are mixed together, the charge starts to become drier and more water needs to be added periodically to prevent the black powder dust rising. On the other hand, if too much water is added, then the mixture will stick to the runners. In France, the standard for moisture content was about 6-7%.

The time of mixing the ingredients depends on the type of powder being manufactured. In the UK, it was 5.5 hours for rifle powder and 2-3 hours for cannon powder, whereas most French manufacturers ran the process for only about 2.5 hours.

Of course, even with these precautions, there were still occasional explosions for various reasons, such as excess mechanical vibrations, heat from friction, static electricity discharges etc. The last of these caused many mills to ensure that their mills were properly grounded for this very reason, Nevertheless, explosions still happened occasionally and therefore, techniques were developed to try and contain the damage as much as possible.

Safety drenching apparatus used in England.

The above illustration shows safety apparatus that was used in England's Royal Waltham mills and later in every British factory. This apparatus is designed to immediately flood the incorporating mill with a large quantity of water the moment the charge ignites. This "drenching apparatus" is designed so that it floods all the incorporating mills in the area simultaneously, thereby preventing the flame from jumping to its neighbors. It consists of a flat board (I) turning around an axle and kept in position by a counter-weight (g). A hinged container (L) filled with water is connected to it so that if the board is moved even slightly, the container will turn over into the position shown by the dotted lines, and the water will pour down over the incorporating mill. Each mill has a container of water over it and the boards over all the incorporating mills are connected to each other by the horizontal shaft (w). This means that in case of an explosion happening on one mill, all the other mills are drenched simultaneously, to prevent the flame from spreading. In emergency situations, a rope and pulley system (seen in the illustration above) allows a person to actuate the apparatus by hand, simply by pulling on the rope.

In our next post, we will study the next part of the process, which is to press the mixture of ingredients into cakes.

Black Powder - IX

In our last couple of posts, we saw how people started to pulverize the ingredients of gunpowder together, in order to maintain a consistent grain size and an even rate of combustion. While the grain sizes were made more uniform, the stamping process had inherent risks when pulverizing all three ingredients together, because the whole thing could explode, especially at the beginning of the stamping operation, due to the ignition of the charcoal. Moreover, the sulfur and charcoal were not always properly pulverized, which affected the inflammabilty of the black powder. Therefore, by the 18th century, people started to pulverize the different materials separately at first, then wet them and combine them and then pulverize the combined mixture again to a consistent grain size. We will study that process today.

In France, in 1763, a gentleman named Desparcieux proposed the idea of pulverizing the separate materials separately in different stamps, but the idea wasn't practically adopted in France until 1794, at which point, about one-sixth of the total stamping machines in France blew up annually. By the nineteenth century, stamping machines were rarely used in Europe and incorporating mills and pulverizing drums (ball mills) were used instead.

Incorporating mills are based on technology that already existed at that time -- a form of this mill was used for centuries past to extract oil from olives. A person named Cossigny introduced an incorporating mill for gunpowder manufacturing in France in 1787, and in 1792, another person named Carny suggested pulverizing in drums. These technologies came to the forefront in France because the French Revolution had occurred and the existing stamp mills could not keep up with the demand for gunpowder. In 1795 though, the process was generally abolished in France for some reason and only came back in use in 1822. By the end of the nineteenth century, all pulverizing in Government factories of France was done in drums, whereas the UK used incorporating mills for both military and private factories. In Germany, the military factories used drums, but private manufacturers generally used incorporating mills.

A typical incorporating mill in the nineteenth century

The above is an incorporating mill made in the nineteenth century by the German company Krupp, Grusonwerk of Buckau-Magdeburg and suitable for pulverizing all the ingredients. It has two large heavy runners, A and A1. Notice that these two runners stand at unequal distances from the central vertical shaft of the machine -- this is a deliberate design choice. The two horizontal shafts, C and C1, that these two runners rotate on, are actualy placed so that each can rise independently of the other in the horizontal cross-head (D). The raw material is placed in the chute (E) and scrapers rotating with the main shaft rake up the material on the bed. A second chute (F) on the right side of the bed serves for emptying out the pulverized material into a sifting cylinder G. The mechanisms of the incorporating mill is driven by a gear train (H and H1).

A typical pulverizing drum in the nineteenth century

The image above shows a pulverizing drum (ball mill) from the nineteenth century. This particular model was in common use in France. The ingredient to be ground was put in, along with an equal weight of brass balls and then then drum was rotated at about 20 revolutions per minute. The brass balls tumble about inside the drum and crush the material in between them to powder. Notice that the circumference of the drum has several wooden bars attached to the inside. The purpose of these is to provide a bumping motion to the brass balls as the drum rotates. The time of rotation of the drum varies depending on the type of powder desired. For example, rifle powder was generally pulverized for three hours, but cannon powder was only pulverized for 15 minutes. Each drum could handle about 110-220 lbs. (50-100 kg.) of ingredients in a single charge. The drum is also electrically grounded to prevent any static electricity from igniting the charge. After the material has been ground, the drum is stopped and a brass sieve is inserted and then the drum is again rotated until the powdered ingredients fall through the sieve into the container below, leaving the brass balls behind. The grinding process gradually wears on the brass, so they were weighed after the operation and any loss in weight was made up with new balls.

Usually, sulfur and saltpeter were ground together initially, because the sulfur cakes otherwise. The charcoal was ground separately. Then the three ingredients were combined together and sufficient water added to bring the moisture content to somewhere between 16-20% and the mixture is again passed through another set of incorporating mills or drums. We will study those machines in our next post.

Black Powder - VIII

In our last post, we saw how people started to manufacture corned black powder starting in the early 15th century. In today's post, we will look at how it was done from then on until the end of the 19th century.

As we saw in our last post, by the early 15th century people had started doing the pulverizing, mixing and caking of the three ingredients of gunpowder (i.e.) saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, in one operation in a stamp mill, in order to keep the grain sizes consistent. We will look at the development of automated machines that did this.

A stamp mill from 1686. Click on the image to enlarge

Image taken from "Teatrum Machinarum Novum" by George Andreas Bockler of Nuremberg. Public domain image.

Parts of a stamp mill.

A stamp mill has a heavy block made of oak or beech wood (b in the diagram above), about 2 feet in thickness, in which a number of mortar holes (a) are carved into the block, to a depth of about 20 inches, with diameter of about 15 inches. At one time, those holes were cylindrical, but they were later carved into spherical shapes with a funnel-shaped opening at the top. At the bottom of each hole, a piece of hardwood (c) is inserted to act as an anvil. The block of wood is tied down by means of straps and bolts and rests on a foundation (usually a wooden grating), so that the bottom is supported to withstand the blows from the  stamp head.

The stamp rod stems (d) are rectangular in cross-section, about 7 to 10 feet long and 4 inches thick and made of maple or beech wood. At the end of each rod is attached a pear-shaped head (e) made of bronze. At the other end of each stamp rod, a lifting pin is wedged on.

Stamp mill in Austria. Public domain image.

By the 19th century, each mill usually had only one stamp rod per mortar hole, but before that it was common to use multiple stamp rods per hole. For instance, in Sweden, they would use four stamp rods per mortar and in Austria, they would use three rods, as the image above shows. Also, some machines used metal mortars instead of wooden ones, but this was abandoned because of sparking risks.

To drive the stamp rods, a cam-shaft (AB) with cams (c) attached to it is used. As the shaft rotates, the cams engage the lifting pins on the stamp rods and lift the rods vertically up to a certain point, whereupon the cam disengages from the pin and the stamp falls back due to gravity. The cam-shaft is driven by the wheel L, which is either powered from a water-wheel or animal-power.

Each rod is dropped about 16-17 inches and the weight is anywhere from 40-90 lbs. Each mortar is filled with the three ingredients of gunpowder in their proper proportions and the contents of each mortar weigh about 15-25 lbs., depending on the size of the machine. The mixture was originally moistened with water in the early part of the 16th century, to reduce chances of spontaneous combustion. Later on, vinegar was used as well and in the middle of the 16th century, it was considered good practice to moisten the mixture with "man's urine who drinks wine"!

The time of stamping also changed during the centuries. In the 16th century, they would generally let the procedure run for 6 hours; by the beginning of the 17th century, it had increased to 10 hours for cannon powder and 12 hours for musket powder; by the year 1700, the time of stamping was about 24 hours at the rate of about 1 blow per second.

In the UK, stamp-mills were prohibited by the 19th century, because of the dangers associated with them. Instead, incorporating mills were used in the UK, as well as Germany and Italy. The technology of incorporating mills was known as early as 1540 and mentioned by Biringuccio. They were imitations of olive oil mills, but were not used early on because they were considered dangerous. Later on, the technology improved and these were used in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy etc.

An incorporating mill. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image taken from "Teatrum Machinarum Novum" by George Andreas Bockler of Nuremberg. Public domain image.

Sweden got its first incorporating mill in Cnutberg in 1684. In France, they were first introduced in 1754 by Pater Ferry at Essonne. These mills have a rotating millstone running over a bed. Each millstone is powered by a system of gears driven by a water wheel. Millstones were made of marble in the early days and the beds made of copper or wood.

In our next post, we will study improvements to the pulverizing process.

Black Powder - VII: Corned Powder

In our last post, we looked at the manufacture of an early form of black powder called "serpentine powder". As we noted previously, there were a few problems with serpentine powder:

1. The ingredients were mixed dry and there was a lot of dust raised and chances of spontaneous combustion.
2. If the black powder was transported on rough roads, the vibration would cause the three ingredients to separate out.
3. There wasn't much uniformity in the grain sizes or composition, so the power of black powder could vary from batch to batch, or even within the same barrel.
4. It was difficult to manufacture large quantities at a time and took significant manual effort.

However, towards the early part of the 15th century, powder manufacturers found that it was safer to make powder in a wet state with water and then dehydrate it later, which produced much more consistent results. The addition of water while grinding the materials made it possible to lessen the problem of heat building up from friction while grinding the materials, thereby making it possible to use larger powered machinery to do the grinding and manufacture larger quantities of powder per batch. Wetting the ingredients during mixing also ensured that the ingredients would form a stable grain matrix with less problems of separation. The use of waterpower to drive the machinery also reduced the cost of production of powder.

The earliest forms of making serpentine powder involved repeatedly pounding the ingredients using a mortar made of wood or stone and a pestle made of wood, which was either lifted directly by hand, or by means of a pulley system. This method required a large number of people to work on it and by the 15th century, this process was improved by using stamp mills powered by animals or water to do the job.

A stamp mill from 1686. Click on the image to enlarge

Image taken from "Teatrum Machinarum Novum" by George Andreas Bockler of Nuremberg. Public domain image.

In the early days of corning powder, manufacturers found it safer to grind the three ingredients together in a wet state. In some cases, they would crush the charcoal and sulfur together in one mortar and crush the saltpeter in another mortar, then combine the three and grind them together in a separate operation. Grinding them together ensured that the particle sizes of the three ingredients were pretty close to each other, thereby ensuring better mixing.

After the grinding was done, the mixture was pressed into sheets or cakes and dried. After that, the sheets were sent into another stamp mill, where large wooden hammers would break off the sheets into grains. The grains were then tumbled together to remove sharp edges and then passed through mesh screens to sort by various grain sizes. The grain size of the largest grains were typically about the size of a grain of corn (which is why the powder got the name "corned powder") and were used for artillery pieces. Grains of powder that were too large or very tiny were simply recycled back into the wet slurry and used to make more powder.

In our next few posts, we will study some of the machinery used from the 15th to the 19th centuries in some detail.

Black Powder - VI: Serpentine Powder

In our last few posts, we looked at how grain sizes of black powder are/were classified in the US and in 19th century England. In today's post, we will look at an early form of black powder, that was called "serpentine powder".

In the earliest days of firearms, the three ingredients of gunpowder, namely saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur were combined together in a dry state. This powder was often referred to as "serpentine" powder. Why the name "serpentine"? Well, there were some early forms of cannon called the "Cannon serpentine" and "Serpentine". The table below shows some details:

Types of Cannon in England during the 16th-17th century. Public domain image. 

Note that serpentine cannon date back to a few hundred years before this list was made.

Some authorities say that "serpentine" artillery tended to be long and thin, resembling a snake, which is why they were named that way. Other authorities claim that "serpentine" is an allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who was Satan in disguise, and cannon were considered to be the work of the devil in the middle ages.

Also, in early matchlock weapons, the serpentine was an S-shaped lever that held the burning match. When the user pulled on one end of the serpentine lever, it would apply the other end with the burning match to the pan, thereby igniting the black powder. Perhaps the S shape resembled a serpent, thereby giving the name "serpentin" or "serpentine"

Early gun with serpentin trigger. Public domain image.

Whatever the origin of the name, the powder made for such weapons was called "serpentine powder".

To prepare serpentine powder, the saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur were first ground up separately using a mortar and pestle, then the three ingredients were mixed together in the desired ratio to form the serpentine powder.

Since the three ingredients were mixed together in a dry state, there was the potential of explosive dust floating around and many powder makers met with accidents during work. Even after it was mixed together, serpentine powder was somewhat unstable and had the tendency to absorb moisture from the air (due to impurities in the saltpeter), which could cause it to spoil. The reliability of serpentine powder was also not very good and its explosive force was hard to predict. If it is packed too tightly into a gun, the charge may fizzle out or it may develop cracks and detonate, destroying the gun.

One more problem with serpentine powder is since the ingredients are ground up separately and then combined, the ingredient particles would often be of different sizes. What this meant was when transporting a barrel of gunpowder in a cart across bumpy and muddy roads, the vibrations would cause the ingredient with the smallest particles to settle at the bottom of the barrel and the ingredient with the larger particles to move to the top. We discussed why this happens a few posts earlier. Since the three ingredients are particles of three different sizes, this would cause the ingredients to separate themselves, so pulling a sample of powder from the top of this barrel would consist of largely charcoal, but very little saltpeter or sulfur, which would not ignite very well. This meant that they would have to remix the ingredients again at their destination, to ensure the proper proportions of the gunpowder mixture. This was a hazardous procedure that produced clouds of explosive dust and wasn't convenient to do in the middle of a battle.

Due to the variable size of ingredients, serpentine powder has a variable burn rate as well and has about 50-60% the energy of modern black powder. The following video shows the burning rates of equal quantities of serpentine powder and modern black powder.

Video courtesy of fido969 at youtube.

As you can see from the video, there is a pretty big difference in the combustion rates of the two powders and serpentine powder produces less power.

In our next article, we will look into the corning process, which solves many of the problems of serpentine powders.

Black Powder - V: Powder Grain Sizes in 19th Century England

In our last post, we looked into how black powder grains are classified by size and type in the US, from the 19th century onwards to the present day. In today's post, we will look at the classification of different powder types in England in the 19th century.

It must be remembered that before the invention of smokeless powder in the latter part of the 19th century, people used black powder for everything from the smallest pistol to large cannon. Therefore, they had to have different types of black powder to accomodate all these weapon types. In England, smoothbore weapons were used as well as rifled weapons. For instance, the Brown Bess musket (which is a muzzle loading smoothbore weapon) was produced by the British from 1722 to about 1860 or so.

We noted a couple of posts ago, that the average size of the grains is a huge factor in the combustion rate of gunpowder. With the introduction of rifled guns, it was considered a good idea to use a powder that would burn more gradually and strain the gun less, than the powder then in use for smoothbore guns. Rifled guns do more work than smoothbores because not only do they impart a forward velocity on the projectile, they also introduce a rotational velocity to it. The weight of projectiles in a rifled gun also tends to be greater than that of a smoothbore gun of the same caliber. For example, an 8-inch rifled cannon of that era threw a projectile of weight 180 lbs., whereas the standard load for a 8-inch smooth bore cannon was a 68 lbs. ball.

For larger cannon, a powder designated as "Large Grain" or L.G. was used, until the advent of rifled cannon, at which point a powder called R.L.G (Rifled Large Grain) was introduced. This powder worked well for cannon of smaller caliber, but when guns of 7 inches and larger calibers were introduced, it was found advisable to use a slower burning powder than R.L.G, at which point, Pebble powders (P and P²) were introduced. These were larger grain powders of cubical-shaped grains. P powder grains were about 5/8 inch per side and P² powder grains were 1.5 inch cubes. We will study the manufacture of these powders in a later post.

For small arms, a more rapidly burning powder is required, and therefore these are much smaller grains on average than the ones above. In England, there were four grades of powder produced for small arms:

1. Fine Grain (F.G.) powder to be used by smoothbore firearms (e.g.) the Brown Bess musket. This powder was also used for the charge of 7 pounder muzzle loading cannon and for the bursting charge of shrapnel shells.
2. Rifle Fine Grain (R.F.G.) powder, to be used by most rifled small arms, except the Martini-Henry rifle and pistols.
3. Rifle Fine Grain 2 (R.F.G.²) powder, to be used by the Martini-Henry cartridge.
4. Pistol powder, to be used by pistols and revolvers such as the Colt Single Action revolver and the Deane-Adams revolvers. This is a quick burning powder and is suitable for shorter barrels, where a slower burning powder would not finish burning within the barrel completely. Since it is a very quick burning powder, it was also used for shrapnel shells.

These powders were classified based on grain size and density and were separated by passing the grains of powder through sieves. Sieves are designated according to the number of divisions per linear inch. Therefore, a 4-mesh sieve has 16 holes per square inch, an 8-mesh sieve has 64 holes per square inch and so on. R.F.G. powder should pass through a 12-mesh sieve, but not through a 20-mesh sieve, and have a density of about 1.6. R.F.G.² powder should also pass through a 12-mesh sieve, but not through a 20-mesh sieve, however the density is higher than R.F.G. powder at 1.72. F.G. powder should pass through a 16-mesh, but not through a 36-mesh, while pistol powder should pass through a 44-mesh, but not a 72-mesh. 

In addition to these powders designated for service small arms, there were also powders classed as "Blank powders", used for training purposes. As with the above powders, these were also made in different grain sizes, (e.g. Blank R.L.G., Blank R.F.G., Blank F.G. and so on). These were made from recycled gunpowder from old shells and broken ammunition boxes and only used for firing salutes and training rounds, where the full power of ammunition was not considered critical. 

The following images show the markings of barrels containing different types of powder:

The above image shows a facsimile of a barrel containing P-grade powder (i.e. Pebble powder). The markings tell us the name of the manufacturer ("Waltham Abbey"), the weight (125 lbs.), the type of powder (P, printed in red paint), the manufacturing date and lot number. The 5th line in the image is also interesting, because it tells us the brand of powder (No. 33), the total number of barrels in this brand (56) and the number of this barrel in the brand (24). All this sort of information is put on a barrel containing newly manufactured powder.

In the above three barrels, the topmost one (No. 2) is a returned powder, which was examined on May 20th 1869 and determined to be still suitable for service. The grade of this powder is Large Grain (L.G.) and the letters L.G. are marked in red. The middle barrel (No. 3) is also a returned powder, which was examined, was re-dusted and repaired for service. It is a Rifle Large Grain (RLG) powder and like the one above it, the letters RLG are painted in red. The date of re-dusting is marked as well. The bottom barrel (No. 4) is different from the other two, as it contains Large Grain Blank powder, intended for military exercises and firing blanks. This is made from powder that was extracted from broken cartridges and old cannon shells and returned powders which were found to be too dusty or broken in the grain, to be used in active service.

These barrels were shipped to filling stations where cartridges, shells etc. were manufactured. To enable tracing where a cartridge or shell was filled, each station with a lab had its own unique monogram, as the illustration below shows:

Black Powder - IV: Powder Grain Sizes

In our last post, we saw that the size of the black powder grains are a significant factor in the rate of combustion of the powder and therefore, the pressure curve as well. In today's post, we will look at how powder grain sizes are classified in the US.

Two different grades of black powder. Click on the image to enlarge.

The above image shows two cans of black powder of different grain sizes. Notice that on the top of the can on the left, we see the letters "FFg" and for the can on the right, we see the letters "FFFFg". Modern black powder purchased in the US since about the late 19th century, has been labeled with a combination of the letters F and g, for example Fg, FFg, FFFg etc. These indicate different grain sizes of powder and we'll see what this all means in a minute. The same grade is sometimes referred to by different names. For instance: "FFFg" grade is sometimes referred to as "3Fg", "3F", "FFF" etc.

The last letter of the black powder name indicates the grade of powder. Usually, for firearms applications, this last letter is always 'g'. But this is not the only grade of powder: there are two grades in use:

1. "A" or "blasting grade" powder - the preferred powder of choice for fireworks manufacture.
2. "g" or "sporting grade" powder - preferred for firearms use.

The primary difference between the 'A' and 'g' grades is in the manufacturing process. Both are manufactured in the same way initially, but at the end, the 'g' grade powders are polished in a tumbler with a tiny amount of graphite, to polish the grains and make them flow easily. The 'A' grade powders are not usually tumbled, and if they are tumbled, it is just for a short amount of time to remove any sharp edges. For purchasing the A-grade powder, the user will need to have a BATFE (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) license and a BATFE-legal magazine to store the powder. Usually that is why it is not commonly seen in sporting goods stores and such. The g-grade is not subject to the same restrictions and is therefore available in gun stores and online shops (only need a BATFE license if purchasing more than 50 lbs. of g-grade powder). Notice that the two cans of black powder in the image above both end with the letter 'g' (One is labeled "FFg" and the other, "FFFFg"), which shows that these are intended mainly for firearms use.

Now on to the mystery behind the letter 'F'. The letter 'F' stands for "Fine" and dates back to the time when the grains were designated F or C (for "coarse" grains). The number of times the letter F occurs in the powder grade shows the average size of the powder grains. The more times the letter F occurs in the name, the smaller the grains. What this means is that the size of "FFFg" grains are smaller than "FFg" grains, and "FFFFg" is even smaller than these two. When black powder is manufactured, the grains are sorted through sieves of standard sizes and classified that way.

Powder Grade	Mesh Size	Average Size in mm.
Whaling	4 mesh	4.750 mm. (0.187 in.)
Cannon	6 mesh	3.35 mm. (0.132 in.)
Saluting (A-1)	10 mesh	2.0 mm. (0.079 in.)
Fg	12 mesh	1.7 mm. (0.0661 in.)
FFg	16 mesh	1.18 mm. (0.0469 in.)
FFFg	20 mesh	0.85 mm. (0.0331 in.)
FFFFg	40 mesh	0.47 mm.
FFFFFg	75 mesh	0.149 mm.

Note that the first 3 grades are intended for use with cannon. The A-1 grade is generally used for artillery blanks used for firing gun salutes. Fg is made for using in large bore rifles and shotguns (8-gauge and larger). FFg powder is used for historical small arms such as muskets, fusils, rifles and large pistols. FFFg powder is for smaller caliber rifles (below .45 caliber), pistols, cap-and-ball revolvers, derringers etc. FFFFg and FFFFFg are mostly used as priming powder for flintlocks. In the image above, the two grades of powder were intended to be used in a historical re-enactment and the FFg powder was meant for the main powder charge of a flintlock rifle, while the FFFFg powder was intended to be used in the pan of the flintlock as a priming powder.

Similarly, the A-grade powders are classified into various grain size ranges (FA, FFA, FFFA, FFFFA, FFFFFA, FFFFFFA, FFFFFFFA, Meal-D and Meal-F (Meal Fine) and Meal XF (Meal Extra-Fine)). However, since these A-grade powders are intended for fireworks and quarries, we will not study them here.

In our next post, we will study the grain size classifications that were used in the UK in the 19th century.

Black Powder - III

In our last post, we studied some of the physical and mechanical properties of gunpowder, information which will come in handy when we study manufacturing methods in some detail. In today's post, we will look at factors that influence the rate of combustion of black powder.

As we saw in the first post of our black powder series, the ratio of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal in gunpowders varied at different times and in different countries, but by the 19th century, many people had generally settled to using the ratio of 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur and 15% charcoal. However, powders made by different manufacturers had different pressures and combustion properties even when they were using the same ratio of the ingredients. We aren't even talking about manufacturers from different countries, they could be manufacturers in the same country or even different powders from a single manufacturer. Clearly there must be some other factors that explain why this happens. That is what we will study about in today's post.

The action of black powder depends not only on the composition of its ingredients, but also the size of the grains, shape of the grains and the density of the grains among other things.There are other factors that influence the rate of burning, but these three are the most important. The reason is because black powder is surface-burning. Smaller grains of gunpowder will have more surface area exposed to ignition than a larger grain of the same weight, therefore smaller grain powder will burn faster than the larger grained type. However, if the powder is packed too densely, the flame cannot easily spread from grain to grain, than the same weight of powder packed in a less compact manner. Therefore, very small grain mealed powder and very large grain powder are both slower burning. The shape of the grain also will affect the burn rate, because of the surface area exposed to ignition. Shapes like cubes or spheres offer less surface area than irregular shaped grains of the same mass, therefore they burn slower. This is why laminated or flaky powders burn much faster than normal and diamond shaped grains burn more rapidly than rounded grains.

As a general rule, the larger the grain, the less violent will be the action of gunpowder (i.e.) its combustion will be more gradual. On the other hand, smaller grain powders also cause pellets to scatter much more rapidly than larger grain powders because a smaller grain powder expends all its force before the shot pellets reach the muzzle, whereas a larger grain powder causes the shot pellets to increase their velocity right up to the muzzle of the gun. Therefore, powder designed for weapons with shorter barrels, such as revolvers and pistols, must be of smaller grain, so that they can finish burning before the powder leaves the barrel. Similarly, powders meant for rifled guns are generally a larger grain than those intended for smooth bores, as a more gradual action is required to avoid putting too much strain on the gun barrel.

Since the same manufacturer often makes black powder of different grain shapes, densities and sizes for different types of guns, therefore the shooting qualities of black powder will vary accordingly. We will look at some powders from the 19th century:

Samples of different powders made by Britsh manufacturers.

Click on the image to enlarge. Public domain image.

The above image shows various black powders made in the 19th century by two large British manufacturers Curtis & Harvey and Pigou, Wilks & Laurence. As you can see, the "Revolver" powder is made of very small grains and designed to be fast burning, while Curtis & Harvey's "Col. Hawker's Duck Powder" and Pigou's "Special Punt Powder" are larger grained and designed to be used by very large bore punt guns. Similarly, Diamond #4 and Alliance #4 were generally used for hunting with shotguns, while #6, Rifle, and Martini-Henry powders were designed for rifles. Other large powder manufacturers in England included the E.C. Powder Company, Schultze Gunpowder Company, Kynoch Ltd., Hall, Coopal, Dittmar etc.

Powders made in other countries also varied in grain size, shape and density:

Black powders from different countries.

Click on the image to enlarge. Public domain image.

The above image shows some sample powders made in different countries. Of course, this is only a very small sample. For instance, in the United States in the late 19th century, there were various powder manufacturers, each making multiple types of powder for different applications: DuPont, Hazard Powder Company, Laflin & Rand, Hercules etc.

Various types of black powder made by DuPont

Various types of black powder made by Laflin & Rand.

Images courtesy of the Haglin Museum and Library

Incidentally, the reason why many of Laflin & Rand's black powder offerings were sold under the "Orange" brand name (e.g. Orange Ducking Powder, Orange Rifle Powder, Orange Lightning, Orange Extra Sporting etc.) is because their original production plant was named "Orange Mills" and happened to be located in Orange County, New York.

The quality of charcoal is also a significant factor in the burning rate of the black powder. If the charcoal is improperly charred, then the oxygen and hydrogen retained in it cause it to burn more rapidly than if it is reduced to a pure carbon. The source of wood for the charcoal is also a factor. Experiments conducted in the 19th century showed that there were significant differences in the amount of gas produced by charcoal made from different types of wood. For instance, dogwood charcoal was found to yield about 25% more gas than the same weight of charcoal made from fir, chestnut or hazel trees and 17% more gas than charcoal made from willow. This is why dogwood was preferred for black powder intended for pistols and rifles, while willow charcoal was preferred for making powder for cannons.

In our next post, we will study more into the classification of grain sizes and shapes.

Black Powder - II

In our last post, we studied the composition of different kinds of black powder as manufactured in various countries. In today's post, we will study some of the physical and mechanical properties of black powder. Gaining some knowledge of this will help understand the reasoning behind the processes of manufacturing the powder when we study that later on.

The first thing we should note about black powder is that it is a mixture and not a compound. Your humble editor will explain what that means:

A compound is formed when different substances combine with each other at a molecular level. The compound will often have properties different from its component substances. For instance, hydrogen and oxygen atoms can combine together to form water (a compound substance), which is a liquid at room temperature, whereas hydrogen and oxygen are gases at the same temperature. Oxygen can help substances burn rapidly, whereas water can be used to stop fires. So you can see that a compound (in this case, water) has quite different properties than its original ingredients (in this case, hydrogen and oxygen).

On the other hand, a mixture is when multiple substances are physically mixed with each other, but do not react at a molecular level. This means that they may be separated from each other by some physical means and mixtures often retain the physical properties of their separate ingredients. For example, you can make a mixture of iron filings, sand and sugar crystals. However, the iron filings can easily be removed from the mixture by passing a magnet over it, while the sugar can be separated out by dumping the mixture in water and letting the sand settle at the bottom while the sugar dissolves in water. Another example could be sand and glass marbles, which can be mixed together easily, but trivially separated by passing the mixture through a sieve, which will allow the sand to pass through, but retain the glass marbles. Black powder is a mixture of potassium nitrate (saltpeter), sulfur and carbon (charcoal). The three substances do not chemically react with each other at room temperature and therefore it is a mixture. Only when the powder starts to burn do the three substances react with each other and form multiple compounds.

Since it is a mixture, the various ingredients of black powder must be ground into particles of roughly the same size as each other to stay mixed together (especially before corning of black powder was invented). Otherwise, the mixture could separate out where the ingredient with the smallest size particles ends up at the bottom of the box, given enough vibration to the box. This is because the smaller particles fit in easily between the gaps of the other particles and fall to the bottom, thereby pushing the bigger particles up. The same phenomenon can be observed with a bag of potato chips (it doesn't matter what flavor of chips!). Notice that when you buy a bag of potato chips, the smallest broken chips are always at the bottom of the bag, whereas the larger pieces end up on top. This is because the bag is shaken during transport from the factory to the grocery store and from the grocery store to your home and the smaller chips end up fitting into the gaps between the larger chips, making their way to the bottom of the bag eventually and thereby pushing the larger pieces upwards. The same principle used to apply to gunpowder before they learned to cake the grains and manufacture them to the same uniform particle sizes. In fact, one of the problems of early black powders (also called serpentine powders) was that when they transported the powder to the battlefield via carts drawn by horses or oxen, the bad roads would cause the barrels of gunpowder to shake heavily, thereby moving the smaller particles to the bottom of the barrel. Therefore, if the ingredients were ground up into particles of different sizes, the ingredients would separate out into three separate layers by the time the barrel got to the battlefield, with the sulfur ending up at the bottom of the barrel and charcoal rising to the top. This is why they would remix the ingredients right there in the field before the battle commenced, which was a somewhat hazardous procedure that produced clouds of potentially explosive dust.

Black powder can be ignited in three different ways: the first method is by contacting it with sparks or open flame, the second method is by a sharp blow and the third method is by increasing its temperature rapidly beyond a certain point.

The first method (exposing it to open flame or sparks) is the principle that different ignitions systems such as matchlocks, wheel locks, flintlocks, percussion locks etc. use. However, the source of the flame or sparks must be hot for the powder to ignite. It is possible for a shower of lower temperature sparks to fall upon black powder without igniting it, whereas a single spark of great intensity can start combustion.

The second method (striking it between two objects) is because black powder is somewhat impact sensitive. Experiments by Aubert, Lingke and Lampadius verified that black powder can be ignited by striking iron on iron, iron on brass, brass on brass, and less easily by a blow of iron on copper, or copper on copper. Of course, some of this might be explained away by the impact causing sparks which ignite the powder. Experiments in 19th century England showed that black powder is also ignited by striking brass on copper, iron on marble, quartz on quartz, lead on lead and lead on wood (a lead bullet was shot against a wooden pendulum covered with powder). Mining accidents over the years showed that striking copper on stone or even wood on stone could occasionally cause ignitions of black powder. One Dr. Dupre even showed that there is hardly any explosive, which, when laid in a thin layer on a wooden floor, will not explode, when it receives a glancing blow with a wooden broom-stick.

The third method (heating it beyond a certain temperature) has some interesting effects. Black powder may be ignited when heated rapidly above a certain temperature, even without the presence of an open flame. The temperature at which this happens depends on the nature of the powder and the proportions of its ingredients and grain size. An experiment by Horsley in the 1800s showed that black powder could be ignited by heating it to around 600 °F (about 315 °C) by heating a saucer in an oil-bath, with the temperature of the oil being taken by a thermometer dipped into it. Experiments by Leygue and Champion in 1871 used a more precise method to determine ignition temperatures and the found that a common sporting powder ignited around 550 °F (about 288 °C), while cannon powder ignited around 563 °F (about 295 °C). However, note that we said that the powder should be heated rapidly for it to ignite. What if it is heated slowly?? Leygue and Champion detail some interesting issues here: They discovered that the grains of corned black powder cake together on account of the sulfur they contain. However, note that black powder before ignition is a mixture, which means it retains many of the physical properties of its separate ingredients. When the temperature of black powder is slowly increased beyond 212 °F (about 100 °C, the temperature of boiling water), the sulfur begins to volatilize and turn into vapor. The volatilization of sulfur rapidly increases with temperature and if the temperature is slowly increased upwards, but kept below the boiling point of sulfur, then the sulfur can be completely driven out of the powder without any ignition taking place. When the sulfur is completely eliminated from the mixture, the temperature can be further increased, so that even the saltpeter melts, and the charcoal ends up floating on top of it, thereby separating out the two ingredients from each other. If, on the other hand, the temperature is rapidly increased before the sulfur is completely volatilized, then the sulfur vapor is ignited and causes the powder to explode. The shape and size of the grains of black powder have considerable influence on the temperature of ignition as well.

If a small quantity of black powder is ignited in open air, it merely burns, but if larger quantities are ignited, or if the powder is ignited under higher pressure or in a closed space, then it explodes. The larger the grain size, the slower the combustion rate. We will study more about this in the next post when we study more about grain sizes.

If good quality black powder is ignited over a sheet of white paper, it will burn rapidly and leave no residue on the paper. If black spots are found, then this indicates that either the mixture contains too much charcoal or the powder is badly mixed. The same can be said for sulfur if yellow spots are left behind. If unburned grains are found, this indicates that the saltpeter is impure. The powder should not burn holes into the paper, as only moist or otherwise bad black powder does so.

As early as 1765, Papacino d'Antoni found that lower air pressures make it more difficult for black powder to ignite. Later experiments by Munke, Hearder, Bianchi, Heeren and Sir Frederick Abel showed that gunpowder didn't explode in a vacuum tube, even in the presence of a platinum wire glowing white hot. Heeren tried to explain this phenomenon by suggesting that at normal pressures, the hot gas escaping from an exploding body would communicate the flame to neighboring particles, but under low pressure, the gas expands so rapidly on account of the lack of resistance of the surrounding air, that it cools down below the ignition temperature of neighboring particles.

On burning gunpowder under normal or high pressures, the various ingredients of the mixture combine with each other chemically and produce gases and solid residue. While this was known from the day that gunpowder was invented, the nature of the gases and solid residue was not. In fact, given the primitive state of chemistry for centuries, it was not known if the products of combustion was just one or several gases. For instance, in 1705, the great Issac Newton thought that sulfuric acid formed by the combustion of sulfur drove out the spirit of niter from the saltpeter and burned it. The same view with slight modifications, was held in 1771 by Majow, who thought a mysterious substance called "phlogiston" (thought to exist in all flammable substances) combined with the nitric acid. It was left to the famous French chemists, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Michel Chevreul, to determine exactly what gases and solid residues were produced. Their experiments showed that among the gases produced were carbonic acid, nitrogen and carbonic oxide, while the solid residues were potassium sulfate, potassium carbonate, potassium sulfide, potassium thio-sulfate etc. Incidentally, Gay-Lussac was the first to prove that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen and also worked on alcohol-water mixtures, the results of which are still used to today to measure alcoholic beverages in many countries around the world (a fact that drinkers will surely appreciate!)

In our next post, we will look into the effects of grain sizes of black powder and how/why different grain sizes were used for different applications.

Black Powder - I

A while ago, we studied about black powder in two separate posts. Since we've studied the processes of obtaining the basic ingredients of black powder (saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur) in great detail in some of our previous posts in the last few months, we will study the processes of combining them into black powder in some detail in the next series of posts.

Before we start our study of black powder manufacture, let us discuss the proportions of the ingredients of black powder. While it is true that many countries had settled with the proportions of 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur and 15% charcoal by the 18th and 19th centuries, this wasn't always true in all countries. Moreover, the proportions also varied a bit, depending on the use for the black powder. For instance, powder intended for military rifles differed in composition than powders intended for sporting applications, which differed from powders used for blasting purposes, powder used for fireworks etc. We have some information about the composition of powders made in various countries, courtesy of Oscar Guttman's book "Manufacture of Explosives" from 1895 (note that some of the countries have different names now)

	Saltpeter	Sulfur	Charcoal
(a) Rifle Powders:
Austria-Hungary	75	10	15
Belgium	75.5	12	12.5
China	75	10	15
France	75	10	15
Germany	74	10	16
Great Britain	75	10	15
Holland	70	14	16
Italy	75	10	15
Persia	75	12.5	12.5
Portugal	75.7	10.7	13.6
Russia	75	10	15
Spain	75	12.5	12.5
Sweden	75	10	15
Switzerland	75	11	14
Turkey	75	10	15
USA	75	10	15
(b) Cannon Powders:
Austria-Hungary	74	10	16
France	75	10	15
Germany	74	10	16
Great Britain	75	10	15
Switzerland	75	10	15
(c) Sporting Powders:
Austria-Hungary	76	9.4	14.6
France	78	10	12
Germany	74	10	16
Great Britain	75	10	15
Switzerland	78	9	13
(d) Blasting Powders:
Austria-Hungary	60.2	18.4	21.4
France	72	13	15
Germany	70	14	16
Great Britain	75	10	15
Italy	78	18	12
Russia	66.6	16.7	16.7

As can be seen above, many countries varied the proportions of the ingredients based on the intended use of the powder. Note that the blasting powders vary in proportion much more than the rest. This is because blasting powder's requirements were that it should be cheap and develop as much gas as possible at a high temperature. Actually, blasting powders were more varied than the table indicates because powders with different rates of burning were used for rocks of different hardness. So even though the table above suggests that the French were manufacturing blasting powder with the ingredients in 72%, 13% and 15% ratio, that was only one grade and the French Government factories actually made 3 grades of blasting powder:

	Saltpeter	Sulfur	Charcoal
Ordinary Powder	62	20	18
Slow Powder	40	30	30
Strong Powder	72	13	15

Similarly, some blasting powders in England were made of different proportions (e.g.) 65% saltpeter, 20% sulfur, 15% charcoal.

Powders manufactured in Belgium had the following compositions depending on the purpose:

	Saltpeter	Sulfur	Charcoal
Rifle Powder	75	12.5	12.5
Cannon Powder	75	12.5	12.5
Sporting Powder	78	10	12
Blasting Powder	75	12	13
Slow Powder or Pulverin	70	13	14 & 3% wood meal
Slow Powder in cartridges	70	13	14 & 3% dextrine
Export Powder	68	18	22

In France, "pulverin" was also manufactured for use in fireworks and contained 75% saltpeter, 12.5% sulfur and 12.5% charcoal mixed together.

In the next couple of posts, we will study the grain sizes of black powder in the 19th century.