Maven
02-20-2011, 06:21 PM
My wife & I just returned (3AM EST, today) from a wonderful week in St. Kitts where the weather was unfailingly sunny & warm, (mid-80's v. 28 deg. F at Newark Airport, but much less with the wind chill early this AM). Anyway, we had the chance to tour Brimstone Hill, an 18th cent. British-built mountain fortress (www.brimstonehillfortress.org.) erected to protect the island and its sugar industry* from Dutch, French, and Spanish invaders. While there, I entered one of the smaller powder magazines and learned that the kegs had to be rotated from time to time so as to reincorporate the KNO3, the heaviest ingredient, into the mixture. Modern BP doesn't have that problem. Also, the magazines were ventilated, but screened so as to prevent a sabateur from dropping embers or "a flaming animal" (Yep, that's what the sign said!) among the kegs, thus blowing them (and the fort) up. Lastly, given the humidity of the region (high), the kegged powder was also kept dry[er] by hanging bags of charcoal and powdered limestone (in plentiful supply nearby) in the magazines.
I also brought some books along to help pass the time when I wasn't eating, exercising, or sitting on the beach (not gloating, just describing what I did). Among the books was one "The Invention of Air" by Steven Johnson, which was mainly about Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen (and also carbonated water...by chance).** One of his competitors, Antoine Lavoisier, was also discussed, but I found the author's statement that Lavoisier had invented a process to produce a superior grade of BP (i.e., superior to British, Dutch, and Spanish BP) fascinating. Unfortunately, that process wasn't described further, except to say that Lavoisier got the French gov't. to vastly increase KNO3 production, even to the point of having it's subjects develop and maintain home niter beds.***
All in all, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Btw, I didn't consume the coconut rum and pineapple juice concoction, which we discovered back in 2004, but I did consume some of the refreshing local beer, "Carib" (5.2% alcohol), "Stag" (.5.5%), and "Skol" (about the same as the other two) produced by the same brewery. St. Kitts is a fairly quiet island with little night life or glamour, which is why we like it. Nearby Nevis has some of that and the cachet of celebrity since Katie Couric, Oprah Winfrey, et al. vacation there on occasion. It's also, to no one's surprise, much more expen$ive than St. Kitts.
*St. Kitts, Nevis, the Grenadines, et al. were also known as the Sugar Islands, since molasses, brown sugar (refined or white sugar was a late 19th cent. invention/process), and rum formed the backbone of their economy, as did cotton. Both involved slave labor and were extremely profitable. Given 17th & 18th cent. "geopolitics," if nation A was at war with nation B, the Sugar Islands controlled by one's enemy of the moment were easy targets. Brimstone Hill was erected to prevent that from happening.
**Priestley was the first to systematically and repeatably isolate the element oxygen and examine, via ingenious experiments, its properties. Schleede and Lavoisier (separately) also did, but not in as systematic a manner as Priestley. Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, actually gave oxygen its name.
***Given the centuries of hostilities between Great Britain & France, Lavoisier's sense of urgency about KNO3 and gunpowder production was quite correct.
I also brought some books along to help pass the time when I wasn't eating, exercising, or sitting on the beach (not gloating, just describing what I did). Among the books was one "The Invention of Air" by Steven Johnson, which was mainly about Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen (and also carbonated water...by chance).** One of his competitors, Antoine Lavoisier, was also discussed, but I found the author's statement that Lavoisier had invented a process to produce a superior grade of BP (i.e., superior to British, Dutch, and Spanish BP) fascinating. Unfortunately, that process wasn't described further, except to say that Lavoisier got the French gov't. to vastly increase KNO3 production, even to the point of having it's subjects develop and maintain home niter beds.***
All in all, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Btw, I didn't consume the coconut rum and pineapple juice concoction, which we discovered back in 2004, but I did consume some of the refreshing local beer, "Carib" (5.2% alcohol), "Stag" (.5.5%), and "Skol" (about the same as the other two) produced by the same brewery. St. Kitts is a fairly quiet island with little night life or glamour, which is why we like it. Nearby Nevis has some of that and the cachet of celebrity since Katie Couric, Oprah Winfrey, et al. vacation there on occasion. It's also, to no one's surprise, much more expen$ive than St. Kitts.
*St. Kitts, Nevis, the Grenadines, et al. were also known as the Sugar Islands, since molasses, brown sugar (refined or white sugar was a late 19th cent. invention/process), and rum formed the backbone of their economy, as did cotton. Both involved slave labor and were extremely profitable. Given 17th & 18th cent. "geopolitics," if nation A was at war with nation B, the Sugar Islands controlled by one's enemy of the moment were easy targets. Brimstone Hill was erected to prevent that from happening.
**Priestley was the first to systematically and repeatably isolate the element oxygen and examine, via ingenious experiments, its properties. Schleede and Lavoisier (separately) also did, but not in as systematic a manner as Priestley. Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, actually gave oxygen its name.
***Given the centuries of hostilities between Great Britain & France, Lavoisier's sense of urgency about KNO3 and gunpowder production was quite correct.