"By about 1300 mixtures of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal were being prepared for use in artillary and, later, in small arms. Of these three ingredients the preparation of the last two presented little difficulty. ...Nitre, however, presented much greater difficulties, for no pure material was readily available. The common source was earth from stables, pig-sties, and so-on, in which it resulted from bacterial action on manure. Generally, all the stable salts were extracted from the earth with boiling water, sometimes with the addition of potash or lime, and the resulting solution was boiled to concentrate it to the point at which ordinary salt, the most harmful impurity, separated out. The salt was removed and the solution allowed to cool, when crystals of pure nitre separated. The mixing of the three ingredients were both difficult and hazardous. It was difficult because a uniform and correctly balanced mixture was necessary for the best results, and hazardous because heat generated in the mixing process might cause explosion."
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Potassium nitrate
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