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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.
Potassium nitrate is one of several nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as saltpetre (or saltpeter in the US). [5] Major uses of potassium nitrate are in fertilizers, tree stump removal, rocket propellants and fireworks. It is one of the major constituents of traditional gunpowder (black powder). [6]
Today, industrial explosives for such uses are still a huge market, but most of the market is in newer explosives rather than black powder. Beginning in the 1930s, gunpowder or smokeless powder was used in rivet guns , stun guns for animals, cable splicers and other industrial construction tools. [ 143 ]
The combustion products of smokeless powder are mainly gaseous, compared to around 55% solid products (mostly potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, and potassium sulfide) for black powder. [1] In addition, smokeless powder does not leave the thick, heavy fouling of hygroscopic material associated with black powder that causes rusting of the ...
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 .
SQM sells three potassium compounds, potassium chloride, nitrate and sulfate [19] for a total revenue of $213mio in 2019. [13] The chloride is obtained as a by-product from lithium production and sold for oil drilling, while the nitrate is made by combining sodium nitrate extracted from caliche and evaporation. [ 20 ]
The wharf was used to receive shipments of potassium nitrate and sulfur from Sicily. Horse-drawn wagons moved raw materials and gunpowder between the wharf and the powder works until the South Pacific Coast Railroad was built. [1] The powder works wharf was unused after 1882 when railroad freight rates encouraged use of wharves in San Francisco ...
Gunpowder, an explosive mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter), was the original propellant employed in firearms and fireworks.It was used from about the 10th or 11th century onward, but it had disadvantages, including the large amount of smoke it produced.