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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.
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 ...
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 ...
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
In contact with potassium nitrate (e.g. in black powder) produces potassium perchlorate and hygroscopic ammonium nitrate; no such reaction with sodium nitrate. Reacts with potassium chlorate, producing unstable, gradually decomposing ammonium chlorate; such combination has to be avoided. [1] Nitronium perchlorate
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 .
Black powder (gunpowder) is composed of charcoal (fuel), potassium nitrate (oxidizer), and sulfur (fuel and catalyst). It is one of the oldest pyrotechnic compositions with application to rocketry. In modern times, black powder finds use in low-power model rockets (such as Estes and Quest rockets), [30] [31] as it is cheap and fairly easy to ...