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For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, are called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium nitrate ...
Potassium nitrate – very common, used in black powder and wide variety of compositions. Not very hygroscopic. At lower temperatures (with ordinary fuels like rosin or shellac) not very efficient, does not burn well, produces potassium nitrite.
A saltpetre works or nitrary [1] is a place of production of potassium nitrate or saltpetre used primarily for the manufacture of gunpowder. The saltpeter occurs naturally in certain places like the "Caves of Salnitre" ( Collbató ) known since the Neolithic.
The use of potassium nitrate has been mostly discontinued because it gives slow and inconsistent results compared with sodium nitrite preparations such as "Prague powder" or pink "curing salt". Even so, potassium nitrate is still used in some food applications, such as salami, dry-cured ham, charcuterie , and (in some countries) in the brine ...
Another common igniter formula is BPN, BKNO3, or boron – potassium nitrate, a mixture of 25% boron and 75% potassium nitrate by weight. It is used e.g. by NASA. It is thermally stable, stable in vacuum, and its burn rate is independent of pressure. In comparison with black powder, BPN burns significantly hotter and leaves more of solid ...
Smokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to black powder. Because of their similar use, both the original black powder formulation and the smokeless propellant which replaced it are commonly described as gunpowder. The combustion products of smokeless ...
Potassium nitrate/magnesium flash powder should be mixed and used immediately and not stored due to its tendency of self-ignition. If magnesium is not a very fine powder, it can be passivated with linseed oil or potassium dichromate. The passivated magnesium flash powder is stable and generally safe to store. 2 KNO 3 + 5 Mg → K 2 O + N 2 + 5 MgO
Although all firearm propellants are generally called powder, [1] the term gunpowder originally described mixtures of charcoal and sulfur with potassium nitrate as an oxidizing agent. [ 2 ] : 133, 137 By the 20th century these early propellants were largely replaced by smokeless powder of nitrocellulose or similarly nitrated organic compounds .