Why gunpowder is good

These types of propellants are available in single or double base. These propellants produce good to extremely good temperature performance. If you use stick propellants for reloading, one drawback is they typically will not meter as uniformly through a powder measure, unless they are very small in grain size. If you want the best uniformity from stick propellants, you will need to weigh individual charges.

If you are loading a lot of ammunition and using a powder measure, this is a consideration. Doing this will give you uniform performance and ballistics regardless of environmental conditions. Ball, or spherical propellant as it is commonly called, is a bit of a misnomer. Very few ball propellants are actually spheres. With the exception of a couple propellants on the market, most are shaped like a thick pancake.

Ball propellants span the entire spectrum of applications from shotshell to rifle. Ball propellants are double base because NG is needed for the deterrent process. Rifle-speed ball propellants generally are 10 to 15 percent NG. Pistol and shotshell speeds have 15 to 35 percent NG.

The deterrent coating that is placed on ball propellant is much different than the extruded propellants. This results in a propellant grain that steadily burns faster and faster, producing more and more gas as it burns through the outer 50 percent of the grain.

The net result of this is that ball propellants can be manipulated by the combination of rolling and the deterrent placement to produce very progressive propellants. The best examples of this today are the Hornady Superformance propellants.

These are highly engineered propellants that produce very high levels of performance. Recently, the ball powder deterrent coating process has been applied to stick propellants to produce very progressive stick propellants.

Hodgdon Hybrid V is an example of this type of design. Ball propellants have several advantages over stick propellants. The first is that they flow easily and meter very uniformly through a powder measure.

The second is they have higher bulk density than stick types; you can get more charge weight in the case. Ball propellants have one significant performance drawback. The exception to this is the Hornady Superformance propellants, which were engineered to provide improved temperature performance. Temperature performance is comparable to older-design stick propellants. Flake propellants, for all practical purposes, are nothing more than a very short, stick propellant.

Flake propellants can be either single or double base. Flake propellants are generally used for pistol or shotshell loads. Some of the flake propellants are manufactured such that they are curved, which causes them to have a lower packing density and lower charge weight in a given case.

This makes them ideally suited for some pistol and most shotshell loads. The very high NG level of some of these propellants improves the cold temperature performance.

This is very important to a shotgun shooter while hunting in cold weather. Chinese texts identify blinding powder, flying powder, violent powder, poison powder, bruising and burning powder and smoke-screen powder. Starting from the Tang or the beginning of the Song, small packages of gunpowder wrapped in paper or bamboo were attached to arrows, which marked the first use of gunpowder in war see the illustration at left.

These would be lit with a fuse of some kind, so that the arrow became an incendiary, intended to set targets afire. In the group of projectiles at left, the different styles correspond to two different types of javelin-propulsion methods. Note the arrow with the gunpowder chamber.

Whip-arrows source. Two crucial innovations were needed before the Chinese developed rockets propelled by gunpowder. First, the idea of a counter-balance had to be conceived. A counter-balance would allow the rocket to move on a straight trajectory. The second innovation was a hole bored into the exact center of the gunpowder in the missile tube.

This would allow the gunpowder to burn evenly and provide efficient thrust. This process of boring into the gunpowder was extremely dangerous. Both of these developments occurred during the 12th and 13th centuries. Evidence of the first bronze hand-held gun dates to the early Yuan dynasty, but metal barrels were used as early as the Tang dynasty for fire lances that propelled gunpowder bombs intended to burn targets. At left is the earliest excavated gun, from the early Yuan dynasty.

A wooden tube would have been inserted in the wide mouth for extra range. The gun was mounted on a wooden housing.

Can you think of any similarities between this gun barrel and the "arrows" pictured above? The earliest known bronze gun, ca. During the Song, smoke bombs, incendiary bombs, gunpowder grenades, and the usual shrapnel objects such as rocks were used in siege warfare. Hemp or cotton would be soaked in oil, ignited, and catapulted outward.

Bombs made of iron shells resembling gourds in shape could shatter a city wall. Gunpowder bombs were a mixture of gunpowder and shrapnel such as charcoal and iron scraps. The range of such "firing balls," or bombs, could be from ten to a hundred yards. The Essentials of the Military Arts also lists the formula of a gas bomb, which could contain poisonous elements.

Fourth, gunpowder dethroned the mounted knight and elevated the gunner, ending a cavalry cycle going back to the Roman empire and eroding the nobility of the sword, whose eclipse Don Quixote so lamented. Fifth, gunpowder added field artillery to the combined-arms paradigm of infantry and mounted warriors, that had dominated land warfare in the Eurasian Ecumene since the age of the chariot.

Ninth, and most importantly, gunpowder permanently settled the ten-thousand-year contest between civilization and the barbarians. This ninth and most significant impact of gunpowder is also the most ironic. The more civilized communities formed states based on cities and other infrastructure such as roads, harbors, and fortifications.

Less civilized communities held onto the life-styles of their ancestors, hunter-gatherers, and pastoralists governed by tribe and kin. The civilized and barbarian communities often bumped into each other, by accident or design, and fought asymmetrically. The barbarians tended to rely on mobility, stealth, and skills developed in hunting and fighting. Soldiers of the state relied on fortification, armor, heavy weapons, and field engineering.

Civilizations had the better record over the millennia, only because their fortifications deterred many attacks, halting the barbarians at the gates. But repeatedly in human experience, barbarian forces conquered civilizations. Germanic tribes conquered Rome. Aryans may have conquered Harappan civilization in the Indus River Valley. Those same Mongols, still tribally organized, also spread their conquest to the West, controlling at one time the largest land empire the world has ever known.

They threatened Europe in the 13 th century, but postponed their invasion to return home and elect a new Khan. By the time they returned, Europeans had strengthened their fortifications and begun their adoption of gunpowder, which the Mongols may have brought on their first incursions. But the slow introduction and assimilation of gunpowder and its weapons in the West eventually robbed the barbarians of the existential threat they had posed for millennia.

After the 14 th century, the barbarians might challenge Western military forces, they might defeat them in the field from time to time, and they might even adopt gunpowder weapons from the West. But they could not manufacture in quantity the weapons and ammunition that gave Westerners their new military advantage.