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Saltpetre Works
A saltpetre works or nitrary is a place of production of potassium nitrate or saltpetre used primarily for the manufacture of gunpowder. The saltpeter occurs naturally in certain places like the "Caves of Salnitre" (Collbató) known since the Neolithic. In the "Cova del Rat Penat", guano (in this case, bat excrements) deposited over thousands of years became saltpeter after being Leaching (pedology), leached by the action of rainwater. Manufacture The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in the fields prepared for that purpose beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until the leaching process did its job; after a certain time, operators gathered the saltpeter that "came out" to the ground surface by efflorescence. Then they transported it to be concentrated by ebullition in the boiler plant. History Besides "Montepellusanus", during the thirteenth century (and beyond) the only supply of saltpeter across Christian Europe (according to "De Alchimia" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molfetta
Molfetta (; Bari dialect, Molfettese: ) is a town located in the northern side of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has a well restored old city, and its own dialect. History The earliest local signs of permanent habitation are at the Neolithic site of Pulo, one of the most important such sites in southern Italy. The origins of the city can be traced to a small fishing port; antique graves testify to a fisherman's village in the fourth century BC. The position of the future city offered a valid landing to the commerce of Ruvo di Puglia, Roman Rubo. The first indication of a toponym on the coast between ''Turenum'' (Trani, Apulia, Trani) and ''Natiolum'' (Giovinazzo) is in the ''Antonine Itinerary, Itinerarium Provinciarum Antonini Augusti'', edited from a third-century core. The place denominated ''Respa'' was probably a wrong transcript of the toponym ''Melpha'', referring to a small village of fishermen. The first official document that mentions the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nitrate Of Chile
Nitratine or nitratite, also known as cubic niter (UK: nitre), soda niter or Chile saltpeter (UK: Chile saltpetre), is a mineral, the naturally occurring form of sodium nitrate, NaNO3. Chemically it is the sodium analogue of saltpeter. Nitratine crystallizes in the trigonal system, but rarely occurs as well-formed crystals. It is isostructural with calcite. It is relatively soft and light with a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2 and a specific gravity of 2.24 to 2.29. Its refractive indices are nω = 1.587 and nε = 1.336. The typical form is as coatings of white, grey to yellowish brown masses. The rare crystals when found typically have the scalenohedral form of the calcite structure. It is found only as an efflorescence in very dry environments. It is very soluble in water such that it is deliquescent and will absorb water out of the air and turn into a puddle of sodium nitrate solution when exposed to humid air. There are nitratine deposits located in arid regions across the world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Gunpowder In Catalonia
Gunpowder is the first explosive to have been developed. Popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China, it was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) while the earliest recorded chemical formula for gunpowder dates to the Song dynasty (11th century). Knowledge of gunpowder spread rapidly throughout Asia and Europe, possibly as a result of the Mongol conquests during the 13th century, with written formulas for it appearing in the Middle East between 1240 and 1280 in a treatise by Hasan al-Rammah, and in Europe by 1267 in the by Roger Bacon. It was employed in warfare to some effect from at least the 10th century in weapons such as fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance before the appearance of the gun in the 13th century. While the fire lance was eventually supplanted by the gun, other gunpowder weapons such as rockets and fire arrows continued to see use in China, Korea, India, and this eventually led to its use in the Middle East, Europe, and Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
