125 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
125 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Article Three
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How To Make Black Powder That Really Works
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I know you've probably seen the recipe for black powder in other pyrotechnic
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articles. The problem with most of that is the procedure, or the amount of
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chemicals to put into the mixture. Here's an example from the file
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SHURMAN.TXT:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Black Powder
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-In any powerful explosive, there is required the explosive itself
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such as nitroglycerine, TNT, and even Black Powder. In military
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explosives, they tend to use more powerful explosives such as TNT
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or dynamite but many urban terrorists would use the cheapest and
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the most available such as black powder.
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-Black powder is bought in most U.S. states but not in Canada, the
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closest to getting it in Canada would be probably privately made.
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However making it would be quite easy and also quite cheap.
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Supplies Required
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Potassium nitrate
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Sulfur
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barquiette Charcoal
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1. Take each item individual and grind them up into the finest powders
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as possible. Use a blend and grind each down until it is so fine.
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2. Once you have blended them into a fine powder, mix them into a bowl
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with this ratio:
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6 parts potassium
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2 parts Charcoal
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1 part Sulfur
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3. Once the three are mixed together in that ratio, mix it up as much
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as possible until it is a fine gray powder. DO NOT! I repeat DON'T
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use the blender once these have been all combined. This new formed
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powder is shock and friction sensitive and could explode instantly
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if put in a blender.
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4. Once completed, store the powder in a plastic margarine container,
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This will prevent it from getting water, and keep in a cool place.
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-There are other ways to making black powder but this is the best
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of them all. There are many other fast burning agents around that
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could be used for building explosive devices. Especially the Gun
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Powder used in shotgun shells.
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-Gun powder can be bought by the pound in Windsor for under $20s
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and its even better then this home made black powder. If you can
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get ahold of gun powder, this would be the substitute that can be
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used to replace Black Powder in any device.
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-There are many other fast burning agents that are in the form of
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flash powder, but the problem with flash powder is that making it
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is extremely expensive or hard to obtain many of those supplies.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Let's get one thing straight first, Black Powder IS NOT Gun Powder! Black
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Powder used to be used as gun powder way back a long time ago in muskets and
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cannons. Now, however, we use a different form of it in which Potassium
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Chlorate is used instead of Potassium Nitrate because there is less smoke
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given off when it burns, it burns faster and it's more easy to light.
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Ok, now let's go through this step by step:
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1. It is important to grind the Potassium Nitrate, the Sulfur and the
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charcoal into fine powders. Do each one separately. I have yet to
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see the Potassium Nitrate ignite when ground in a plastic or metal
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bowl, so use whatever you got. Electric shock won't set the drug
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store variety of Saltpeter off very easily. Make sure each is a fine
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powder before continuing.
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2. Use the following ratio when mixing: 5 parts Potassium Nitrate
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2 parts Charcoal
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1 part Sulfur
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3. Once the ingredients are added, mix them up thoroughly. Some people say
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to mix them dry, but I found that best results occur when you add a
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little water, just enough to make it a fairly dry paste. Mix it up good!
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You will then want to heat this paste somehow. Use your mom's pot, or
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do it in a big metal can or something and put it on the stove. Heat it
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while stirring it CONSTANTLY! You don't want any dry particles cooking:)
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When there is just a little moisture left, take it off the stove.
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4. When it is cooled off a little so that you can touch it, get some wire
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mesh (window screen mesh is fine) and grade the powder through it with a
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piece of paper below to catch the droppings. The droppings that fall
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onto the paper below should look like small lumps of black/grey stuff.
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5. That's it! Let the grey stuff on the paper dry thoroughly. When it
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feels dry to the touch then it's ready to light! Take a small amount and
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put it in a pile on a metal plate or something that won't burn and put a
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match to it. It may take a while to get it going, since drug store
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Potassium Nitrate isn't the most purest of substances :) But when it
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does light, take your hand away so it doesn't get burnt and watch it
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flare up!
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That's about all there is to it. You may want to fool around with the amount
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of ingredients you put in though. Just remember two things:
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1) The Potassium Nitrate is the Oxidizer
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2) The Charcoal and the Sulfur are the feuls
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3) The Oxidizer "oxidizes" the feul (it reacts with the feul)
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This means that if there is too much Potassium Nitrate, there won't be enough
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feul to sustain the reaction. Also, if there is too much Charcoal, Sulfur,
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or both, there won't be enough Potassium nitrate to react with it all. So,
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if there is too much of any one of the chemicals, you will waste the excess
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chemical, or you may even decrease the effifiency of the reaction meaning it
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won't work as well as it could!
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The most efficient ratio of ingredients can be calculated using
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Stoichiometry! In other words, by using the chemical equation of the
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burning of black powder, you can find out the exact percentage of each
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chemical to add. I used to know the formula, but I lost it. I'll try to
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get over to the Windsor Public Library and get it again. Once I have it,
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I'll release an update to this file that will tell you what the formula is
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aswell as all the calculations involved in finding the best percentages.
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Oh, and of course I'll tell you what those percentages are :)
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Until then, have fun with the instructions I have given. Just don't do
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anything stupid like make a pipe bomb or something like that! Black Powder
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is great for making mini-road flares, or those Fountain 'o' Fire type of
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fireworks (the ones that spray sparks) or whatever. Just be careful! Don't
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burn yourself, or others, and don't set anything on fire :)
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