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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.
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur , charcoal (which is mostly carbon ), and potassium nitrate (saltpeter) .
Modern firearm propellants tend to be smokeless powders based on nitrocellulose or similarly nitrated organic compounds, first invented in the late 19th century as a cleaner and better-performing replacement for black powder. Modern smokeless powder may be corned into small spherical balls, or extruded into cylinders or strips with many cross ...
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 ...
A black powder substitute is a replacement for black powder (gunpowder), primarily used in muzzleloading firearms. Substitutes may have slightly different properties from gunpowder such as: reduced sensitivity as an explosive, increased efficiency as a propellant powder, different density, and/or reduced ignition efficiency.
As a projectile driver, it had around six times the gas generation of an equal volume of black powder and produced less smoke and less heating. Artillery shells filled with gun cotton were widely used during the American Civil War, and its use was one of the reasons the conflict was seen as the "first modern war."
Mr Shapps added: “US and British defence intelligence can reveal that lethal aid is now flying from China to Russia and into Ukraine. “That recent visit we saw, the I think 64% increase in ...
This is a timeline of the history of gunpowder and related topics such as weapons, warfare, and industrial applications. The timeline covers the history of gunpowder from the first hints of its origin as a Taoist alchemical product in China until its replacement by smokeless powder in the late 19th century (from 1884 to the present day).