Early black powder.

[Darto]

For many centuries until late in the black powder era, black powder was 'serpentine'. You went to the gunshop and bought ground charcoal, ground sulfur, and ground salt peter. You put the correct amounts of each into the powder flask and shook it up to mix it from time to time.

Storing the 3 ingredients in your house was not dangerous at all until you mixed them together.

Notice this guy in the English Civil War roundhead helmet, the band of apostles that he wears. Each apostle was very large in that era in order to shake up the serpentine mix.

[Flintlock Tom]

I've never heard of that; thank you for sharing that knowledge.

Flintlock Tom

[k1dude]

Interesting. Thanks.

[pitfighter]

In Cormac McCarthy's (No Country for Old Men, The Road) book "Blood Meridian", they go one step further by making their own saltpeter.
Peeing in rock puddles and letting the sun evaporate and crystalize the result.

Captain Kirk did it, too, though he found the saltpeter, he didn't make it himself, lol.

[rmnc3r]

I thought 'Serpentine' had to do with the serpent shaped match holder of early Matchlock guns. I was more familiar with 'Corned' Powder for use in said guns.





More Kook (Keeper of odd Knowledge) Trivia

http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2016/07/black-powder-vi-serpentine-powder.html

http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2016/07/black-powder-vii-corned-powder.html

[Darto]

Yeah, that's true, the snake shaped cock on later guns were called a serpentine. Like on a matchlock.
One type of earlier firearm was called a Serpentine.
Early powder was called Serpentine.

First guns were just a pipe with the breach plug in the center, not the end. The back part of the pipe was stuffed with a wooden pole (shaped like a broomstick). And the front of the pipe was the gun barrel. So you had to hold the match cord with a separate stick (called a linstick) in the other hand that was not holding onto the gun. These were called gonnes.

Gonne (about 1380)




The first guns that you could hold with both hands had a stock shaped more like a modern pistol and a simple S shaped hook screwed to the stock. It was kept vertical by gravity until you pulled the end of the hook backwards. (Bottom of hook is bigger to keep it vertical). And the hook was called the serpentine because of its shape. And so these type of guns were also called a serpentine. (about 1430).




Then the matchlock made the gonne and serpentine obsolete. Matchlocks reigned for the next 200 years (1480 to 1680). Then the flintlock.

[Darto]

To be accurate, in 1380 almost all the 'gonnes' had a barrel that was shaped on both ends about like a 1/2" pipe found in the plumbing department today. That fat barreled version in the picture was called a 'hand canon' and was not very practical. The 40 to 60 caliber 'gonne' was very practical and peons would use it to shoot a flock of geese swimming on the water for food. Or just target fun.

[Darto]

oops... X marks the spot, open the pan,

[gun toting monkeyboy]

I'm going to go with "No" here. I don't know where you got your information on this one, but it is wrong. And just mixing the three ingredients together will not get you a worthwhile black powder. It will get you serpentine powder, which is garbage, and only useful for cheap firecrackers. They are NOT the same. It is not a viable propellant. I literally spent years researching this for the 1632 series of novels. I have actually made black powder from scratch. Making real black powder was a closely guarded state secret for centuries. And the hardware/process for making it is not something people would or could do at home. How well the different ingredients are mixed effects the final product. How you combine the ingredients matters. Whether you use a wet or dry process matters. How you grind or shape the grains matters. Tossing it all in a bag and shaking it just won't work.

-Mb

[Lmo]

... 3 rounds a minute?!? With accuracy out to 100 yards?

With that smooth bore cannon? Brown Bess was only 'good' for about 50% accuracy at that range; down about 25% more each 100 yards out (to 300 yards ).

[19K]

... 3 rounds a minute?!? With accuracy out to 100 yards?

With that smooth bore cannon? Brown Bess was only 'good' for about 50% accuracy at that range; down about 25% more each 100 yards out (to 300 yards ).

Brown Bess accuracy was so terrible, from what I remember, not because it was a smooth bore, but because a severely undersized ball was used in their cartridges so loading could be done faster


Just looked it up. Brown Besses were .750 but they used .690 round balls.

[k1dude]

Brown Bess accuracy was so terrible, from what I remember, not because it was a smooth bore, but because a severely undersized ball was used in their cartridges so loading could be done faster


Just looked it up. Brown Besses were .750 but they used .690 round balls.

Probably because their ball QC was so bad they didn't want barrels blowing up due to an oversized ball being jammed in the bore.

[19K]

Probably because their ball QC was so bad they didn't want barrels blowing up due to an oversized ball being jammed in the bore.

No, it was to keep up a high rate of fire even when barrels were severely fouled.

They also lacked sights.

[rmnc3r]

No, it was to keep up a high rate of fire even when barrels were severely fouled.

They also lacked sights.

[RNE228]

The change with the Minie ball was two fold. The rate of fire was higher because the design of the bullet allowed faster firing even with fouled bores; something you could not do with patched ball without brushing frequently.

It was deadly compared to round ball; The higher velocity and mass caused more devastating wounds than round ball.

Henry Burton really improved the Minie, making it a more devastating bullet.