White Gunpowder ?? Brown Gunpowder ??

[ra_balke]

I read somewhere that the US Civil War was fought using muskets loaded with White Gunpowder... Can anyone tell me anything about this ?

I read somewhere that the old blasting powders was Brown Gunpowder, and it burned faster, and would shatter rock due to it's hi speed burning rate..

Does anyone know anything about brown gunpowder ?

[rhead]

I think I remember reading that some experimental powders were made using sugar instead of charcoal in an attempt to reduce fouling. Appearantly it was not sucessfull enough to replace charcoal based powders but I cannot recall what the problems were.
The burning rates of blasting powders are varied to give a measure of control over the size of the rubble. Variations in the ratios of the components would affect the color and the burn rates.

[Jim]

Click on the link below and scroll down to "RED OR WHITE PROPELLANT".

http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/imh1.txt

[missionary5155]

White Powder...
Down here in the REAL south there are all sorts of "stuff" used to propel shot down barrels. I went into a shop to get some BLACK and the feller said he had some new stuff 4 times stronger than black. He showed me a cut off shotgun casing (12g) he was using as a measure. He permitted me to copy his measure. I bought a half pound of the "stuff"... it is white and the "Flakes" are pencil lead thick and in a corkscrew pattern.. I highly suspected it is a form of blasting powder. I decided to try a "half scoop" in a 12g load of 1 ounce... just for safety... It is corrosive and in power more potent as my favorite Unique load in 12g by weight. It leaves no fouling.. no smoke but must be cleaned out of the barrel the same as Black. So I have a half pound of something white... and it will propel shot down a barrel but I sure wont use his loading measure... even in my Mossberg.

[Molly]

> I read somewhere that the US Civil War was fought using muskets loaded with White Gunpowder... Can anyone tell me anything about this ?

Well, yes, some "White gunpowder" was used, but darned little of it. Ordinary black powder was the propellent used by both sides for probably 99+% of the war. The 'White Powder" was a wartime expedient used mostly when regular powder couldn't be obtained in adequate supply. It was a mixture of (Potassium or sodium - not sure which) chlorate and sugar. Performace was notably poorer than with regular powder, and it was VERY corrosive to the barrels. Wasn't real popular as a result. The primary advantage was that it could be made and issued more quickly than regular black powder, which overshadowed it's serious disadvantages when times were tough.

> I read somewhere that the old blasting powders was Brown Gunpowder, and it burned faster, and would shatter rock due to it's hi speed burning rate..

> Does anyone know anything about brown gunpowder?

Brown gunpowder was made using only partialy charred willow (I think) wood, and if I recall correctly, was developed as a superior propellent for artillery, and its performance reportedly came fairly close to smokeless powder. If so, it would not have been formulated to shatter rock, because it would have shattered cannon barrels as well.

I think the NRA Handloading book has a paragraph or two on brown powders. Again, if memory serves, smokeless had arrived on the scene, and the almost complete lack of fouling from nitrocellulose was such an overwhelming advantage that development work on nitrate / sulphur / charcoal gunpowders came to a screeching halt.

Molly

[NickSS]

I used a couple kegs of blasting powder as propellent for a six pounder gun I was part owner in 35 years ago. The stuff was graded FS and looked grey in collor. Ingreadiants were same as black powder except it used Sodium Nitrate in liu of Potasium Nitrate. It worked well in our cannon and would launch a six pound lead shot over 1000 yards with about 5 degrees of elevation with only about one pound of propellent. Mostly we shot cans full of concrete with about 3 oz of powder at targets some 125 yards away.

[EchoSixMike]

Brown or cocoa powder was used in the transitional period from plain black to prismatic black to brown to nitrocellulose based powders.

From what I can decypher, brown powder is made using underburned charcoal, allowing a slower burn rate and thus a longer burn at lower pressures. When combined with complex graining techniques(primatic powder, developed by Rodman) it allowed up to 2000fps velocities. The Spanish American war's naval battles were fought with brown powder, I believe. S/F.....Ken M