In Chinese Tartary and
Thibet, every peasant manufactures it for himself.
To make 8 lbs. of gunpowder, take 1 lb. of charcoal, 1 lb. of sulphur,
and 6 lbs. of saltpetre. These proportions should be followed as
accurately as possible. Each of the three materials must be pounded into
powder separately, and then all mixed together most thoroughly. The
mixture must have a little water added to it, Enough to make it bind into
a stiff paste (about one-tenth part, by measure, of water is sufficient;
that is to say, one cupful of water to ten cupfuls of the mixed powder).
The paste must be well kneaded together, with one stone on another, just
as travellers usually make meal or grind coffee. It should then be
wrapped up to a piece of canvas, or a skin, and pressed, with as heavy a
pressure as can be obtained, to condense it. Next, the cake is squeezed
and worked against a sieve made of parchment, in which the holes have
been burnt with a red-hot wire, and through which the cake is squeezed in
grains. These grains are now put into a box, which is well shaken about,
and in this way the grains run each other smooth. The fine dust that is
then found mixed with the grains, must be winnowed away; lastly the
grains are dried.
Recapitulation.--1. Pound the ingredients separately. @. Mix them. 3.
Add a little water, and knead the mass. 4. Press it. 5.
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