> How Gunpowder Changed the World
> By Heather Whipps,
> 07Apr2008
> http://www.livescience.com//history/080407-hs-gunpowder.html
>
> When gunpowder was used to create personal handguns and rifles, a new type
> of soldier was created: infantry. a Revolutionary War
> reenactment at Fort Ward Historic Site in Alexandria, Virginia.
>
> Ironically, it was a quest for immortality that led to the invention of
> the deadliest weapon before the arrival of the atomic bomb.
>
> Experimenting with life-lengthening elixirs around A.D. 850, Chinese
> alchemists instead discovered gunpowder. Their explosive
> invention would become the basis for almost every weapon used in war from
> that point on, from fiery arrows to rifles, cannons and
> grenades. Gunpowder made warfare all over the world very different,
> affecting the way battles were fought and borders were drawn
> throughout the Middle Ages.
>
> Flying fire
>
> Chinese scientists had been playing with saltpeter - a common name for the
> powerful oxidizing agent potassium nitrate - in medical
> compounds for centuries when one industrious individual thought to mix it
> with sulfur and charcoal. The result was a mysterious
> powder from which, observers remarked in a text dated from the mid-9th
> century, "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."Gunpowder was quickly put to use by
> the reigning Sung dynasty against the Mongols, whose constant invasions
> into the country plagued the Chinese throughout the period.
> The Mongols were the first to be subject to flying fire - an arrow fixed
> with a tube of gunpowder that ignited and would propel
> itself across enemy lines. More gunpowder-based weapons were invented by
> the Chinese and perfected against the Mongols in the next
> centuries, including the first cannons and grenades. The psychological
> effect alone of the mystifying new technology likely helped
> the Chinese win battles against the Mongols, historians believe.
>
> Explosive trade
>
> Gunpowder somehow remained a monopoly of the Chinese until the 13th
> century, when the science was passed along the ancient silk
> trade route to Europe and the Islamic world, where it became a deciding
> factor in many Middle Age skirmishes. By 1350, rudimentary
> gunpowder cannons were commonplace in the English and French militaries,
> which used the technology against each other during the
> Hundred Years' War. The Ottoman Turks also employed gunpowder cannons with
> abandon during their successful siege of Constantinople
> in 1453. The powerful new weapon essentially rendered the traditional
> walled fortification of Europe, impregnable for centuries,
> weak and defenseless.
>
> The next important step for gunpowder came when it was inserted into the
> barrel of a handgun, which first appeared in the mid-15th
> century and was essentially a cannon shrunk down to portable size. Guns
> literally put weaponry into the hands of the individual,
> creating a new class of soldier - infantry - and giving birth to the
> modern army.
>
> Gunpowder is still the basis for many modern weapons, including guns,
> though it's certainly no longer the most explosive force
> available to armies. Need to celebrate a victory in battle, though?
> Gunpowder is there for you. The powder is also at the heart of
> the fireworks that make the Fourth of July and other holidays so special.
> To produce the aerial spray of reds, golds and blues,
> pyrotechnicians pack a tube with gunpowder, colorizing chemicals and small
> pellets that create the shape and shimmer of the
> firework.