Gunpowder

Gunpowder, explosive powder used in ballistics, specifically, black powder, an explosive mixture of about 75 percent potassium nitrate, 15 percent charcoal, and 10 percent sulfur. Gunpowder was the first explosive known. The formula for gunpowder appears in the writings of the 13th-century English monk Roger Bacon, but it seems to have been discovered by the Chinese, who had used it in firecrackers several hundred years before his time. Gunpowder was probably introduced into Europe from the Middle East. Berthold Schwarz, a German monk of the early 14th century, may have been the first person to employ gunpowder for propelling a projectile. Whatever the prec