He talks of his hospital days when he saw the agony of incurable disease. Martin Burke at the University of Illinois, the machine’s inventor, encountered the problem while working as a doctor in the late 1990s. The fact is, fabricating molecules takes a lot of time. Yet this nondescript machine could be the first step to banishing one of chemistry’s biggest demons. Between loading the raw starting materials and collecting the final result, not a hand touches the set-up. Syringes tighten imperceptibly, sending solutions dribbling through a tangle of spaghetti-thin tubes into reaction vessels. It is dispensing not drinks, but complex chemicals. They constantly improved the recipe, but made a breakthrough in the late 19th-early 20th century, when smokeless gunpowder was invented.IN THE corner of the lab, a machine the size of a coffee shop espresso maker quietly whirs and hums. Unlocked potentialĭespite these precautionary measures, weapon makers finally discovered the secret of gunpowder. The clergy believed that as soon as the method of making gunpowder became known to uneducated people, they would use the recipe to make weapons. The scientist made a precise recipe of the substance, and for a long time kept it secret, not allowing it to leave the monkhood. The properties of gunpowder were later described by another monk and inventor by the name of Roger Bacon. The medieval alchemist then began to study the properties of the black powder in detail, and even wrote a treatise on it. The Franciscan monk Berthold Schwarz was grinding a mixture of powder in a mortar when a spark came into contact with the powder, causing an explosion. Europeans came up with this idea in the 14th century. The Chinese, having invented gunpowder, did not suspect that the power of gas could be used to fire a shell, increasing its speed and range by many times. An 18th-century illustration of Chinese fireworks Later they began to use gunpowder in weaponry, making explosive shells from it. In this way, they invented the favorite toy of the Chinese people – fireworks. The application of gunpowderĪs soon as the enterprising Chinese realized that the black powder they had made gave off smoke, exploded and burnt everything around it, they thought about ways to use it. Followers of the alchemist constantly improved the recipe by experiments, until they discovered its three components – sulfur, coal and potassium nitrate. The first specimen of gunpowder made by the Chinese scientist did not have the necessary explosive force. This reaction fascinated the alchemist, and he began to study it. When the resulting mixture was burnt on a stove, a powerful flash resembling an explosion took place. He once manufactured a mixture of nitrate and sulfur, then added woodchips from a locust tree. The part played by alchemyĪccording to another theory, the Chinese alchemist Sun Simiao invented gunpowder. Who was first to combine the three components to make gunpowder? Perhaps it was the Daosi – members of a religious movement who tried to make a “pills of immortality”. Initially, nitrate was used in medicine – ancient oriental doctors mixed this substance with honey and burn it to make “healing smoke”. Some scientists believe that gunpowder was used by the ancient Indians as early as 1,500 years BCE, but there is no evidence to support this.Ī reliable theory states that the Chinese invented gunpowder. It’s impossible to give a precise date, as there are no official records to confirm this theory. It is believed that gunpowder was invented in China in the 7th century. As a result of this reaction, gaseous products are formed, which are powerful enough to fire shells and projectiles. This hard, multi-component explosive substance burns without the presence of oxygen. Initially, smoky or black powder was the name given to a substance consisting of a mixture of coal, sulfur and potassium nitrate in the proportions of 3:2:15.
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