The Invention of Gunpowder

The Invention of Gunpowder


During 900BC fire pots were thrown down on Troops besieging a town are depicted in Assyrian bas-reliefs in the British Museum which dated around 900BC. Early Writers gave detailed and sometimes lurid accounts of the use of incendiaries. Herodotus describes how arrows tipped with burning tow were used in the capture of Athens in 480BC, and Thucydides tell's how a huge bonfire was lit against the wooden walls of Platea, in 429 BC.


The most authoritative modern view is that gunpowder was first made in China, in the middle of the Ninth Century AD by 'Thang Achemists who were actually looking for the elixir of immortality - one of most remarkable examples of inventing one thing while trying to find something else. The early Chinese literature refers to 'fire chemical' and 'fire drug' but it is not until 1004 that there is any specific mention of the composition of gunpowder and even then no information is given about the proportions in the mixture.


The earliest use of Gunpowder was certainly in fireworks, for which the Chinese have always had a passion, but the possibility of making simple bombs and grenades was realised during the eleventh century. The military implications led the Chinese to place the production of Sulphur and Saltpetre under state control. In 1067 the emperor banned their sale to foreigners. The Chinese army was ready with well overa million men strong and it was necessary to arm it as well as possible to fend off attacks by the Mongols from Central Asia.


No one knows with any certainty how the news of all this remarkable activity in the East reached the Western World, nor why it travelled so slowly.


Roger Bacon revealed the composition of Gunpowder in a treatise entitled 'De secretis operibus artis et naturae et de nullitate magiae' ('On the marvellous power of art and of nature and the nullity of magic').  


The question 'Who Invented Gunpowder' still cannot be answered today with any real certainty.


Brown.I.G (1998) The Big Bang, A History of Explosives: Gloucestershire. Sutton Publishing Limited


I found some great information on Gunpowder, more to come on the Making of it and What it was used in. Adam.