What's GUNPOWDER?
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Gunpowder (also referred to as black powder), an explosive substance composed of Sulfur, Saltpeter (Potassium Nitrate), and a fuel (usually charcoal), is one of the most influential pieces of technology from ancient China. It's affected history, past and present, in ways where it feels unimaginable to think of a world without it. Think of a world without guns, missiles, bombs, and other weapons which Gunpowder is responsible for – it's hard – these items have become engraved into humanity's history and seemingly vital to our world.
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Granular Gunpowder for muzzleloading firearms
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ORIGINS OF Gunpowder
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Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E - 220C.E) sent his Taoist alchemists on a quest to find out the secret to immortality and develop an Elixir of Life. They immediately got to work by mixing various compounds and heating them, hoping to find the key to immortality. While it wasn’t what they had been requested to find, they did notice that two ingredients, Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) and Sulfur had interesting properties, particularly in relation to one another. These ingredients became the most important ingredients of Gunpowder.
A Story from the Origins of Gunpowder Many accidents occurred on the quest to find this Elixir of Life. Unexpected reactions occurred due to the slew of different compounds being used to create the Elixir, with one account saying “(…) some have heated together the saltpeter, sulfure, and carbon of charcoal with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house burnt down.” These incidents led to the creation and usage of gunpowder in the ways we know it today. |
Emperor Wu Di of the Han Dynasty
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EFFECTS OF Gunpowder
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Gunpowder has had a pronounced effect across history, yet it's hard to grasp how much it really has influenced. Early on in the usage of Gunpowder, Europeans built castles to defend against the onslaught of cannonballs, launched by cannons which utilized Gunpowder. Armored Knights were phased out as guns could pierce their armor, transitioning the world from a melee-based environment to a ranged-based battlefield that we see commonly today.
When Gunpowder was first starting to be developed, it was intended to make people live forever, or be immortal. When that didn't pan out, they tried to reutilize for medicinal purposes, which worked to a degree. Most of the planned intents for Gunpowder never were achieved, but it was repurposed later on in various ways. It's clear that those original alchemists who created the foundation for Gunpowder didn't realize the future impact of their creation, and especially not the unintentional impacts. It led to many different things - from weapons of destruction to recreational fireworks, it's been used in a slew of different things. In more recent times, Gunpowder has been used in fireworks to light the sky every 4th of July in the U.S, becoming engraved in American culture. Bombs have been created which can destroy civilizations, causing global fear and panic. No one knew how controversial the issue of guns in the United States would become, with mass shootings becoming a part of life in America. In earlier times, Gunpowder was used to create weapons to colonize the world, win wars, and change the course of history. This also impacted the environment of our world, with natural resources being exploited with the help of these weapons to control important territories. The various amount of ways that Gunpowder has contributed to the world we know today mark it as one of the most important ancient Chinese inventions, as well as a fundamental part of our world's past, present, and most likely future. |
Fireworks displayed at a Firework show in the U.K
British Army solider using a machine-gun attached onto a vehicle
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SOURCES
https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/miltech/firearms.htm
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/gun.shtml
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/g/Gunpowder.htm
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7687.html
https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/arms.htm
Website by Aiden Rouhani, 9th Grade. Finished 4/20/22. For World History 1.
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/gun.shtml
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/g/Gunpowder.htm
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7687.html
https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/arms.htm
Website by Aiden Rouhani, 9th Grade. Finished 4/20/22. For World History 1.