Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World

273 Pages·2004·2.2 MB·English

by  Jack Kelly

HISTORY
“Kelly convincingly argues that efforts to harness the substance spurred
research into chemistry and metallurgy and set Europe on the path to the
industrial revolution. Exhaustively researched.”
—Wired
“An entertaining account of a subject that has touched every one of us “A fast-paced book that is historical reporting at its very best,
in some way.”—Roanoke Times with surprises on almost every page. Kelly’s writing style is crisp and edgy,
perfect for his subject matter.”—Tucson Citizen
“Horrifying in content, but curiously literary, even poetic in style, Kelly’s
book lives up to the promise of its sub-subtitle. . . Grade: A.”
—Sci-Fi Magazine
“A romp that makes the dusty pages of history come alive with a cast of
alchemists, swashbucklers, kings, pillagers, revolutionaries, traders, and
saboteurs. . . Kelly illustrates the horrors of war and the daily lives of
soldiers and commoners, and tosses interesting tidbits into the mix.”
—San Antonio Express-News
A simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal made possible the modern world.
Invented to frighten evil spirits, the explosive properties of gunpowder spread from Asia
to Europe, from pyrotechnics to battleships, paved the way for Western exploration, has-
tened the end of feudalism and the rise of the nation state, and greased the wheels of the
industrial revolution. Gunpowder—a must-read for history fans and military buffs
alike—brings together a rich terrain of cultures and technological innovations with
authoritative research and swashbuckling style.
JACK KELLY is both an accomplished novelist and an acclaimed author of popu-
lar history. He writes regularly for American Heritage and has also written features
about the DuPont family’s involvement in the gunpowder industry and the history of
fireworks in America. He lives in Milan, New York.
US $14.95 / $19.95 CAN
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.basicbooks.com
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Praise for Gunpowder
“A fascinating, encompassing story . . . Kelly interweaves in-
tense, fast-moving anecdotes of military history with counter-
point narratives of technical developments of powder and
guns and the evolution of military and social attitudes. He
writes brightly, freshly.”
—Baltimore Sun
“Full of interesting characters, Gunpowder is popular history
at its most entertaining and informative.”
—Santa Cruz Sentinel
“Fiery prose sparks this exciting story as the author jumps
through the centuries with nimble pose and a learned eye.”
—Kirkus
“The pleasure of Gunpowder is the fun of learning.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“In this thoroughly readable book, Kelly leads us through the
centuries, introducing historic figures whose work would leave
indelible marks on all our lives.”
—Virginian Pilot
“A smooth-flowing history of one of the world’s most influen-
tial inventions.”
—Poughkeepsie Journal
“Kelly writes well and has a terrific eye for the instructive de-
tail or odd historical fact that brings the narrative to life. It is
an entertaining and readable effort.”
—Publishers Weekly
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Also by Jack Kelly
Mobtown
Line of Sight
Mad Dog
Protection
Apalachin
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GUNPOWDER
ALCHEMY, BOMBARDS, AND PYROTECHNICS:
The History of the Explosive That Changed the World
JACK KELLY
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
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Copyright © 2004 by Jack Kelly
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Paperback edition published in 2005
Hardcover edition published in 2004
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic
Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016–8810.
Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in
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Every effort has been made to trace copyright material. In cases where this has not been
possible, the publisher invites copyright holders to contact us so that due acknowledgment
can be made in future printings of the book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelly, Jack, 1949–
Gunpowder : alchemy, bombards, and pyrotechnics : the history of the
explosive that changed the world / Jack Kelly.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-465-03718-6 (hardcover)
1. Gunpowder—History. I. Title.
TP272.K45 2004
662'.26—dc22
2003025536
ISBN 0-465-03722-4 (paperback)
05 06 07 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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C
ONTENTS
Prologue: The Devil’s Distillate vii
1: Fire Drug 1
2: Thundring Noyse 19
3: The Most Pernicious Arts 39
4: The Devills Birds 55
5: Villainous Saltpetre 73
6: Conquest’s Crimson Wing 87
7: Nitro-Aerial Spirit 109
8: No One Reasons 125
9: What Victory Costs 135
10: History Out of Control 153
11: The Meeting of Heaven and Earth 171
12: Appalling Grandeur 197
13: The Old Article 217
Epilogue: Something New 239
Sources 243
Index 251
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0465037186_fm.qxd 2/14/05 10:00 AM Page vii
P :
ROLOGUE
T D ’ D
HE EVIL S ISTILLATE
“...that puissant monarch,
Which rides triumphing in a chariot
On mist-black clouds, mix’d with quenchless fire,
Through uncouth corners in dark paths of death.”
—Barnabe Barnes, 1607
Fire ignites our dreams and our anxieties. It speaks to us in a
language more basic than thought. Our instincts respond to the
flicker of flame, to the wavering colors of the coals, to the roar of the
conflagration.
Fire needs fuel, oxygen, heat. It needs an initiator—a tiny bit of
burning metal struck to white heat by friction against flint, a spark.
The heat of the spark rips apart molecules of fuel. Carbon and hydro-
gen atoms combine with oxygen. The reactions are exothermic—they
give off heat to ignite more fuel, a chain reaction. The complex
process remains something of a mystery to science even today. We un-
derstand roughly what is happening, but the flame appears to have a
VII
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VIII GUNPOWDER
life of its own. Its energy bursts out as heat, which makes particles of
soot incandescent.
Mankind has lived with natural fire for eons—the hearth, the camp-
fire, the candle flame have been our intimates. Like human lungs, the
flames are nourished by oxygen from the air. As convection carries away
the hot spent gases, fresh air reaches the fuel. But oxygen makes up only
20 percent of the atmosphere. The thirst for oxygen puts a perpetual
brake on natural flames. Winds fan a fire—smothered, the flames die.
What if the fire’s heat induced oxygen to burst from the very pores
of the burning material? The brake would be let off —the fire would
burn unrestrained, with utter abandon. The chain reaction of combus-
tion would accelerate at an astonishing rate. Instead of needing min-
utes or hours to burn, the fuel would go up in a fraction of a second.
This violent reaction, a product of inner oxygen, is man’s fire, con-
cocted, singular, unquenchable. It does not exist anywhere in nature. It
is “artificial fire”—feu d’artifice, fuegos artificiales—terms for what in
English we call fireworks, pyrotechnics. Its embodiment is gunpowder.
Artificial fire requires an oxidizer, a chemical that emits oxygen
when heated. Mix the oxidizer with the fuel. Grind it until the ingredi-
ents are in intimate contact. The oxidizer is saltpeter, the fuel a combi-
nation of charcoal and sulfur. As the fuel burns it decomposes the
saltpeter, releasing virgin oxygen. The oxygen accelerates the burning, a
process technically called a deflagration. You have created gunpowder.
The substance that was to be known as gunpowder was not in-
vented for the gun. Before gunpowder’s inception, no one had con-
ceived of a projectile-throwing machine driven by chemical energy.
Humans developed tools for using this new material only after it had
emerged from the fantastical speculation of alchemists. Only through
centuries of trial and error did gunpowder reveal its properties and
possibilities.
No rational theory guided the inventors of gunpowder. What’s
more, during the nine hundred years when powder was in common
use, indeed during the century since it has been rendered obsolete for
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Prologue IX
most uses, no other combination of natural ingredients was found
that could replicate its effects. Gunpowder was unique.
Early in its history, gunpowder was labeled the “devil’s distillate.”
Onlookers were terrified by its flash and boom. Its fabricators were
secretive, blackened men, daredevils whose arcane work was subject
to disastrous accidents. One of gunpowder’s ingredients, brimstone,
was the burning stone always associated with Satan. Gunpowder’s ac-
tion was a diabolical mystery—once ignited, it blazed wildly, infer-
nally, leaving behind the sharp tang of sulfur and a haze of smoke.
Gunpowder, for most of a millennium, was mankind’s only explo-
sive. It was one of the few chemical technologies to emerge from the
Middle Ages. Its effects were momentous. In the seventeenth century,
Francis Bacon spoke of “those three which were unknown to the an-
cients, and of which the origin, though recent, is obscure and inglori-
ous; namely printing, gunpowder and the magnet. For these three
have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the
world.” Gunpowder was indeed of inglorious origin, fashioned by
craftsmen from the basest of ingredients. It was just as surely a cata-
lyst of the modern world, an invention that threw up a divide beyond
which the rivers of history flowed in a new direction.
Today, gunpowder is an anachronism. The powdermakers who op-
erate the few remaining mills use methods that are centuries old. Their
way of making powder would not be a mystery to an artisan of the
1300s. It is remarkable that a technology that arrived in the West in
the time of Dante was still performing valuable service in the time of
Henry Ford. A substance that was fueling skyrockets and firecrackers
during the era of Genghis Khan will be doing the same during the era
of the quantum computer.
This book is about that original technology, about the powder that
resulted from the mechanical mixing of naturally occurring ingredi-
ents. During the latter part of the 1800s, this ancient substance was
superceded by synthetic propellants and explosives derived from the
chemistry laboratory. The original powder came to be known as