Gunpowder made of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal

Gunpowder made of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal; first on sulfur.

[4.109] Gunpowder kindles fire most quickly. It made of:

• sulfur
• saltpeter
• charcoal

Sulfur is as flammable as possible because it consists of particles of sharp juices so thinly and densely wrapped in the twigs of oily material that many meatus between these twigs are open only to the fire-aether.

Hence, sulfur is even considered very hot for medicinal use.

Saltpeter

[4.110] Saltpeter consists of oblong and rigid particles.

They are thicker at one end than at the other, different from common salt. This can be deduced from the fact that when dissolved in water, it does not congeal into a square shape on its surface, as common salt does, but adheres to the bottom and sides of the vessel.

The Combination of sulfur and saltpeter

[4.111] As for the size of the particles, it is to be thought that there is such a proportion between them that the sharp juices in sulfur, moved by the fire-aether, can easily shake off the globules of the air-aether from the intervals between the twigs of oily material.

At the same time, they agitate the particles of saltpeter, which are thicker than they are.

The motion of nitre particles

[4.112] These particles of nitre are thicker in one part. They tend downward due to their gravity.

Consequently, their primary motion is in the sharper part, which is erect upward, as in B.

It forms a circular motion, initially small, as in C, but immediately becomes larger, as in D, unless something impedes it.

Meanwhile, particles of sulfur, moving very swiftly in all directions, reach other nitre particles in a very short time.

Why the flame of this powder expands greatly and particularly moves upward.

[4.113] Each of these nitre particles requires a significant amount of space to describe the circles of its motion.

The flame of this powder expands greatly. Furthermore, since these circles are described by the pointed end, the entire force of the flame tends upward.

Being very dry and fine, it can be ignited safely by hand.

Charcoal

[4.114] Charcoal is mixed with sulfur and nitre, and from this mixture, moistened with some liquid, small grains or pills are formed, which are then dried.

Many channels exist in charcoal. Partly because there were many in the bodies from which it was made through their combustion, and also because much smoke evolved when these bodies were burned.

There are only two kinds of particles in it: one is thicker, forming ashes on its own, and the other is finer, igniting easily because they were already moved by the force of fire, but intertwined with long and multiple branches, so they cannot be separated without some force.

This is evident from the fact that, while others go into smoke preceding their combustion, these last ones remain.

The grains of this powder and where its main force lies

[4.115] Thus, sulfur and nitre easily enter the wide channels of charcoal and wrap around and constrict its branched particles, especially when moistened with some liquid and compacted into grains or small pills, then dried.

The purpose of this is to ensure that the particles of nitre, not only one after another but many simultaneously, ignite in a single moment.

When the fire first touches the surface of any grain after being ignited elsewhere, it does not immediately inflame and dissolve it.

Instead, it takes some time to reach the inner parts of the grain from its surface. There, with sulfur ignited first, it gradually agitates the particles of nitre so that, eventually, they, gaining strength and requiring more space for their circular motions, tear apart the bonds of charcoal and break the entire grain.

Even though this time is very short, if referred to hours or days, it is still considerable compared to the great speed with which the exploding grain spreads its flame throughout the nearby air.

For example, in a military device, a few grains of powder ignited by a wick or another fuse immediately ignite others.

The flame erupting from them spreads through all the intervening spaces between the grains in the smallest moment of time. While it may not penetrate the inner parts as quickly, because it touches many simultaneously, it causes many to ignite and expand simultaneously, thereby detonating the device with great force.

Thus, the resistance of charcoal greatly enhances the speed with which the particles of nitre burst into flame. The distinction between grains is necessary to have sufficiently large channels around them, allowing the flame of the first ignited powder to freely reach many parts of the remaining powder.

Lamps that burn for a long time

[4.116]

There are lamps in underground catacombs that remained lit after many years. Presumably, in a subterranean and tightly sealed place where no or very little air was ever stirred, many branched soot particles could collect around the flame of the lamp.

These particles mutually support each other while remaining immobile. They create a kind of small vault sufficient to prevent the surrounding air from burying and suffocating the flame.

They would also break and blunt the force of the flame in such a way that no more particles of oil or wick, if any remained, could ignite.

This would cause the fire-aether, alone remaining there and rapidly rotating like a small star, to repel the air-aether globules from itself on all sides.

Thus, the light would spread throughout the chamber, like a small and dim light but one that could easily regain strength with the external movement of air, when the space opened. The lamp, free from soot, displayed its burning flame.

The Remaining Effects of Fire

Moreover, it is also clear how from these bodies, initially, the finest and slippery particles emerge, then others not necessarily thicker than the former but more branched and intertwined.

These are the ones adhering to the walls of chimneys, forming soot, and the thickest ones alone remain as ashes.

However, it remains to briefly show how the same force of fire causes certain bodies not used as fuel to melt and boil, others to dry and harden, others to evaporate, others to turn into lime, and others into glass.

Which bodies, when added to it, melt and boil?

[4.118] All hard bodies, composed of particles not much more difficult to separate from each other than from their neighbors, and which can be disjoined by the force of fire, melt when subjected to that force.

For being liquid means consisting of particles separated from each other and in some motion. As such particles, being very fast-moving, turn into air or fire, demanding more space for their motion and thereby expelling others, these liquid bodies effervesce and boil.

Which dry and harden

[4.119] However, bodies containing many thin, flexible, slippery particles, intertwined with other thicker or branched ones but not very firmly attached, when subjected to fire, release them, and thus, they dry out.

For being dry means lacking those fluid particles that, when gathered together, form water or another liquid.

These fluid particles, enclosed in the channels of hard bodies, expand them and shake the other particles with their motion. This removes or at least diminishes their hardness. Once these evaporate, the remaining particles tend to be more closely joined and firmly connected, causing the bodies to harden.