By the beginning of the 20th century, black powder was already obsolete and was massively replaced by smokeless compositions. But this time was at the same time the peak of the perfection of the old recipe - there was probably no greater variety of compositions in the entire almost thousand-year history of this substance. If you turn to the pages of the Science and Technology reference book of 1912, you can find the recipe for at least a dozen varieties of gunpowder (mine, English hunting, English military, French, Russian, American, German, etc.). And no less mentions of other varieties, differing in the proportions of the main components and the method of their production. Because it was these things that strongly influenced the characteristics of the final composition.
As you know, black powder belongs to mixtures. Moreover, only three components are required to create: sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal. And all the time the active use of such gunpowder was the search for optimal technologies for obtaining these components. And that is why the gunpowder varied, at times, in different countries in quality - because of the access to different resources and the ability to use them.
With gray, everything is more or less simple. They learned to extract it in its pure form even in antiquity, and no one had any particular difficulties in obtaining it. But I had to tinker with coal and saltpeter.
Black powder heavily clogs the bore. And most of all, coal is involved. And to reduce this scourge, one had to tirelessly take care of its purity and quality.
Mining of charcoal in the 19th century. Drawing from the French journal * La Science iIlustrée *.
At first, the coal was used, which it turned out to get hold of ordinary coal burners. But it turned out that it either contains various resins that are completely unnecessary in the greening business, or it is not sufficiently fired, which is why the gunpowder burns slowly. And the search began for the optimal starting material and firing modes. As a result, almost every country has acquired its own method, rather carefully guarded from outsiders.
In many countries, buckthorn was burned on powder coal. Alder and willow were ranked highly. Some plants were used entirely, from others they took only the core.
At first, they got the hang of firing in sealed retorts, then they thought of rotating them - for uniform heating. As a result, the coal became more or less similar in quality to everyone. But with saltpeter, the hassle came out most of all - too much of it was required.
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When huge deposits of saltpeter were discovered in Chile, many participants in the world political arena were pushing for their possession. But until then, I had to be content with a deposit in Egypt. Or even get it yourself. The trouble is that no one then possessed the technology of its synthesis, but this strategic substance was obtained … from manure and urine.
The process looked something like this: in a heap it was required to dump a lot of feces and thoroughly water them with urine. And then wait until it all decays. It is desirable to protect it from rain - so that the accumulated raw materials do not go into the soil. As soon as this compost rotted, saltpeter was formed in it. To get it in its pure form, this soil was boiled, and the resulting infusion was poured and put into processing. By some simple hassle, we obtained pure saltpeter. And in general, everything looked simple, but to get a ton of gunpowder, it was required to master 40-50 tons of manure. And where to get such valuable raw materials on an industrial scale was another challenge for the logistics of that time.
Of course, it was possible in some way to come to an agreement with the sewer workers, who are busy cleaning cesspools and removing waste outside the city. This is in theory. And in practice, if these sanitary services existed, they did not work very efficiently. Many homeowners have tried to save money, which is why they preferred to put up with overflowing pits, rather than give money for something that did not seem to be a vital expense.
To somehow counteract such a misfortune, the British in the 17th century created a special public service. The representatives of the saltpeter producers had the right to inspect the cesspools of any Briton, regardless of origin. That is, they monitored the emptying of the cesspools and collected urine in the morning - that was specially put out the door in special vessels. So in the streets early in the morning, not only milkmen thundered with cans …
The ranks of these officials, deeply unloved and despised by the population, recruited the scum of society - often a rather petty and aggressive public. They preferred not to quarrel with such. True, they were allowed to enter the threshold only under duress. There is evidence that even the beggars despised them. But still, the service worked well, so there was enough gunpowder both for the reign of the Stuarts and for the civil war afterwards.
Vacuum pump for collecting “ night fertilizers ” (as they were called in England). From * The Practical Magazine *, London, 1874.
The French remembered the practice of their neighbors during the Napoleonic wars, when their numerous opponents staged a blockade, which caused the crumbling empire to experience a serious shortage of saltpeter. And the selection of urine and the contents of the cesspools was organized not only in large cities, but also in the most remote countryside. And for the humus of this good, considerable land areas were allocated. Actually, some of these areas were allocated even under the Louis, but Bonaparte added about the same to them - the guns had to shoot.
Waste was placed in huge heaps and well wrapped up (roughly like today's silage) in order to somehow speed up the process of decomposition and formation of nitrate. Actually, long before that, the chemical genius Glauber had learned to artificially obtain saltpeter, but his method was in no way suitable for serious volumes due to the general high cost. That is why the huge pyramids of sewage smelled sweet near Paris. And imperial officials went to the houses of the townspeople, interested in digestion.
Curiously, before the discovery of Norwegian nitrate synthesis technology at the beginning of the twentieth century, countries that did not have access to the reserves of South America were doing well with proven manure heaps. Well, outside Paris, tourists are still being taken to the fields, where they once received strategic raw materials.