Medieval gun powder as good as modern!

[Henry]

Does anyone know what is used in modern percussion caps inside bullets? Is it still mercury fulminate or something else?

 

[Henry]

For awhile I also tried making Tri-nitro tolorene, but couldnt really get enough to make anything substantial out of and it was annoying and considerably dangerous...

THAT would have been something to tell an insurance company.

"My hobbies are gaming, stamp collecting, and I make TNT in my home in my spare time."

 

[Darklone]

Reminds me of that boy we had in school. Once he caused a minor explosion in his cellar and the burglars who robbed their neighbours house at the moment dropped everything and fled.

 

[Conaill]

And as for unstable, you should look at the first replacement for gunpowder, guncotton (or nitrocellulose)... basically cotton soaked in nitroglycerin.

Having made some nitrocellulose in my adventurous youth, it is most definitely *not* "cotton soaked in nitroglycerin". Nitrocellulose is made by the nitration of cellulose (cotton), just as nitroglycerin is made by the nitration of glycerin. Different chemicals altogether. Nitrocellulose is very flammable, but it's not nearly as unstable and explosive as nitroglycerin...

[Then there was the crazy neighborhood kid who tried making actual nitroglycerine using his big brother's chemistry set, but wound up pouring what was probably a ml or so of nitro down the drain, because he misread the final instructions. Good thing nobody in the street flushed their toilet too hard that day. Ah, the happy boyhood memories of experimenting with dangerous chemicals...]

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Having made some nitrocellulose in my adventurous youth, it is most definitely *not* "cotton soaked in nitroglycerin". Nitrocellulose is made by the nitration of cellulose (cotton), just as nitroglycerin is made by the nitration of glycerin. Different chemicals altogether. Nitrocellulose is very flammable, but it's not nearly as unstable and explosive as nitroglycerin...

[Then there was the crazy neighborhood kid who tried making actual nitroglycerine using his big brother's chemistry set, but wound up pouring what was probably a ml or so of nitro down the drain, because he misread the final instructions. Good thing nobody in the street flushed their toilet too hard that day. Ah, the happy boyhood memories of experimenting with dangerous chemicals...]

I was going to make a correction to my posting, but you caught it already. As for not being unstable... well the it wasn't as unstable as nitroglycerine, but it was not unknown for the stuff to go off, ummm, rather unexpectedly. It was however somewhat cleaner in it's burn than blackpowder, and the Union Army did consider it for a while. I had confused guncotton with some of the variants that were made on dynamite. (Others were clay pellets (ie. cat litter), shredded paper, and sawdust.) I remember watching Vertical Limit and thing 'What are they, idiots?[/i]

And fulminate of mercury is dangerous, I dropped a percussion cap once and it went off, after falling less than 3 feet. I think that I'll stick with flintlocks.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* And I had no excuse for getting the two mixed up, I've also made nitrocellulose... If you have nitric acid it's actually easier to make than gunpowder...