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Grains are used worldwide for measuring gunpowder and smokeless powder charges. Historically, the dram (27 + 11 ⁄ 32 grains; not to be mixed up with the apothecaries' dram of 60 grains) has also been used worldwide for measuring gunpowder charges, particularly for shotguns and large black-powder rifles.
The grain is the traditional measurement of the weight of bullets, black powder and smokeless powder in English-speaking countries. It is the unit measured by the scales used in handloading; commonly, bullets are measured in increments of one grain, gunpowder in increments of 0.1 grains. [12] There are 7,000 grains in one pound.
These powder measures typically use gravity feed from a hopper of powder above an adjustable cavity in a rotating cylinder. [3] A lever rotates the cylinder so the cavity moves between an upward position where powder can drain from the hopper into the cavity, and a lower position where the powder can drain from the cavity into an empty ...
The grain was the legal foundation of traditional English weight systems, [5] and is the only unit that is equal throughout the troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems of mass. [6]: C-6 The unit was based on the weight of a single grain of barley which was equal to about + 4 ⁄ 3 the weight of a single grain of wheat.
One component of a powder-mill, taken from Encyclopédie, published by Denis Diderot, circa 1770. A working example of the drawing above. This is a restored edge-runner mill at Eleutherian Mills. A powder mill was a mill where gunpowder is made [1] from sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal.
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).
In 1875 Lammot du Pont invented Hexagonal powder for large artillery, which was pressed using shaped plates with a small center core; about 1.5 inches (38 mm) diameter, like a wagon wheel nut, the center hole widened as the grain burned. By 1880 naval guns were using Hexagonal grains, 1 inch (25 mm) in height. [2]
Finnish smokeless powder. 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.