Auther：2023-09-05
Gunpowder is one of the four great inventions in ancient China, which is the result of people's long-term practice of alchemy and medicine, and has a history of more than a thousand years.
The formula of gunpowder was first discovered by Taoist alchemists of ancient China while trying to make of pills to achieve immortality. Later, people made black gunpowder with niter, sulfur and charcoal of certain proportions on the basis of the formula. Books of the middle Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) recorded the method of producing this kind of gunpowder. It was first used to make firecrackers and fireworks, and then in military affairs in the late Tang Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), gunpowder-based weapons such as rockets and cannons were widely used.
Around the late Tang Dynasty, niter, the major material for making gunpowder, had been spread to Arabia, Persia and other places.Niter is white, and was thus called Chinese snow and Chinese salt by Arabians. Around the first half of the 13th century, both gunpowder and related weapons spread to Europe via Arabia. Europeans not only used gunpowder in weapons, but also for cutting through mountains, constructing roads, and digging rivers. The wide use of gunpowder in engineering work accelerated the advent of the Industrial Revolution.With its lethality and deterrent power, gunpowder has brought mankind the role of stopping war and security defense, and has become one of the important inventions of human civilization.
