Invention of Gunpowder

A summary of the invention of gunpowder, explaining what, when, and how it was discovered.

"Boom, boom, pow..."

Before the Black Eye Peas created "Boom, Boom, Pow," the Chinese had long since perfected it. No, I'm not talking about fireworks either, but gunpowder. After all, China is considered the godfather for the magical explosive dust. Personally, I would not say that the Chinese invented gunpowder, but rather discovered it. Because like electricity, it already had been there since the beginning of time.

As with many things that have been discovered throughout human history such as whiteout, microwaves, post-it notes, gunpowder was also found by accident. The history has stated that the first sign of the existence of gunpowder was back in the Tang dynasty around (850 A.D).

Life and death

Gunpowder is supposed to be the elixir of life, which it grants to make the user immortal, instead it becomes the quickest ticket for you to go heaven or hell (if you prefer). What an irony, don't you agree? According to the book "Tao (a religion)," to make the elixir of life you need three important ingredients: sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (aka potassium nitrate).

All of the Tang alchemists started to experiment with the substances. The result from the powder recorded in a text dated from the mid-9th century stated, "smoke and flames result, so that [the scientists'] hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down." There is no record of whether or not that was the last day the alchemists worked on the job. I guess we are never going to find out (hehe).

Gunpowder was not used until the Song Dynasty (904 A.D), which was the first time that gunpowder was used in the warfare and it was against the Mongol. The first ever weapon created with gunpowder was a tube, which contained gunpowder, attached to an arrow and then ignited toward the enemy. This weapon later on was known as "Fei Huo," which translates to "Flying Fire." At first, the tube that was used came from a bamboo tree, but later it was replaced with metal and bronze.

Smokeless powder...

After a few years, the Chinese once again made another great discovery which was the smokeless gunpowder. With this smokeless powder, the Chinese were able fire their weapons further, and their soldiers were able see more clearly. Hence, the weapons became more accurate. The reason I said this was also a great discovery because this technology has not changed much since it was introduced and is still utilized today.

For example, without this smokeless powder, you may not see how beautiful the fireworks are on July 4 behind your backyard, or how sexy it is to see your bullet connect to the deer that you are trying to shoot (after trying for the last 26 times). Yes, I will accept "I'm not wearing any contacts" as an excuse.

Well, you may ask, how did gunpowder spread throughout the world? There are two different versions, and I'm not sure which is correct. The first version is that the technology was spread through the Silky Road and into the European.

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