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A demonstration of the oxidation of a piece of charcoal in molten potassium nitrate. The most famous use of potassium nitrate is probably as the oxidizer in blackpowder. From the most ancient times until the late 1880s, blackpowder provided the explosive power for all the world's firearms.
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
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 ...
Today's punks (wood splints covered with ground plant pith or dung and then saturated with nitrate) used for lighting consumer fireworks are a type of slow match. A black match is a type of fuse consisting of cotton string coated with a dried slurry of black powder and glue. This acts as a simple pass-fire, and was used to fire ancient cannons.
The mining industry tends to use nitrate-based explosives such as emulsions of fuel oil and ammonium nitrate solutions, [9] mixtures of ammonium nitrate prills (fertilizer pellets) and fuel oil and gelatinous suspensions or slurries [10] of ammonium nitrate and combustible fuels.
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 ...
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.
Sprengel explosives are a generic class of materials invented by Hermann Sprengel in the 1870s. [1] They consist of stoichiometric mixtures of strong oxidisers and reactive fuels , mixed just prior to use in order to enhance safety.