Synonyms:
gunpowder, powder
Meaning: a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur in a 75:15:10 ratio which is used in gunnery, time fuses, and fireworks
Usage examples
Rocket Composition consists of gunpowder 16 parts, by Weight; charcoal, 3 parts.
This appeared to be devoted to minerals, and the sight of a block of sulphur set my mind running on gunpowder.
They next devised a scheme to blow him up by hiding a keg of gunpowder under his bed; but here, too, they failed.
They had dynamite, gunpowder and other explosives, and in the frightful exigency there was nothing else to be used.
It should be made with the greatest care, and used as soon as possible afterwards: it is the most important ingredient in gunpowder.
To make Gunpowder.--It is difficult to make good gunpowder, but there is no skill required in making powder that will shoot and kill.
When this has taken place, the bottom part must be broken off and put aside as unfit for making gunpowder, and the top part alone used.
By this means I could fire a greater quantity of gunpowder in a small quantity of air, and avoid the hazard of blowing up, and breaking my receiver.
(It is made by the action of the air on the potash contained in the earths.) The taste, which is that of gunpowder, is the best test of its presence.
In order to try this experiment I half exhausted a receiver, and then with a burning-glass fired the gunpowder which had been previously put into it.
0. Word pronunciation is derived from article recording Siege, License CC BY-SA 4.0