Page 98 - (DK) Danger! Open with Extreme Caution!

An explosive is a substance packed with stored

Recipe for disaster
th
making them useful as propellants (such as to
Sometime in the 9 century,
the Chinese found the recipe KABOOOOOM!
for gunpowder. They mixed energy that is released as a sudden blast of
fuel (carbon-rich charcoal) expanding gas, bright light, and searing heat.
expand in an instant, creating a destructive
with a stabilizer (sulfur) to There are two basic types of explosives: low
keep things under control
shock wave. Enjoy this mind-blowing trip
and an oxidizer (nitrate) explosives like gunpowder expand slowly,
through the archives of explosive history.
to feed the chemical reaction.
When ignited, it went boom! fire a bullet from a gun), while high explosives

The charcoal for gunpowder making came from burned trees, the sulfur from
underground mines… but collecting the final ingredient, potassium nitrate,
was a stinker of a job: old animal droppings were left to turn white, and then
the crystals of nitrate were rinsed off. Gunpowder may initially have been
used as an early insect repellent to smoke out invading ants, but, before
Blasted ants!

98 long, its potential as a weapon was being fully exploited.
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