This was the only way that people had to mass produce Saltpetre but it wasn’t exactly the fastest way to do it.
The urine would be poured on each day which would keep the reaction going at optimal rate, and after each pouring a cover would be put over the pile to protect it from rainfall which would dissolve any saltpetre that formed and wash it back into the soil. Every day someone would come along and empty a bucket or two of urine all over the pile, which normally came from people saving up the contents of their chamber pots. The bacterial reaction makes the substance group together and come to the surface of the pile, but this reaction needs fresh bacteria and ammonia to help keeps things going. The Saltpetre forms into crystals through the decomposition of plant matter and feces. If the pile is to big the saltpetre in the middle will have to go too far from the middle and won’t be able to reach the outside to be gathered. In the areas of the world that colonial Europe occupied, there wasn’t a single SaltPetre mine that the mineral came from and wherever European settlers went they made their own, and here’s how.Ī mound of earth would be made that consists of 50% soil, 25% animal manure and 25% plant matter like leaves, grass, plant tops etc… It would then be well mixed together and formed into a pile, usually no more than six feet high or wide. Saltpetre is found naturally in soil all over the world, but it is very well mixed in and can’t even be seen with the naked eye, appearing in tiny amounts throughout the soil. (A bowl of Saltpetre, a substance that looks just like large flakes of regular salt) Production of Black powder is all about obtaining saltpetre since it’s not only the main ingredient but also the most important, causing the whole reaction to take place and cant be substituted for anything else available at the time, so where did it come from? Charcoal can easily be made anywhere in huge quantities and sulfur can be mined from around volcanic areas, hot springs and can be extracted from a number of sulfur bearing minerals through various processes like melting and washing, but saltpetre cannot be found in a mine-able vein anywhere in the world apart from two small regions, with one in India and one in Indonesia. The three ingredients were mixed together in various ratios but during the 1600s it was discovered that a mix of 75% saltpetre, 15% charcoal and 10% sulfur was the most reactive. A more accurate name for this early form would be black powder which is always made with the same three ingredients, charcoal, sulfur and something called saltpetre which has the chemical name Potassium nitrate. Modern firearms still use a propellant referred to as gunpowder but it’s completely different from what was used in the days of the musket. Gun powder is name given to the explosive propellant that fires the bullet forward, but there isn’t a set recipe for gunpowder and it’s nothing more than a name. (The flintlock firing mechanism was used for over 200 years and relied entirely on the production of gunpowder) It took close to three months to sail one way across the Atlantic and waiting a minimum of six months for a resupply of powder was out the question, so they had to produce it themselves with the land they had.
When European colonists established their first North American settlement in 1607 (Jamestown), gunpowder based firearms were the weapons of choice because of how easy they were to use and the massive damage they could inflict on the enemy, but all these guns were completely useless without the explosive propellant known as gunpowder. The first documented use of a firearm was a matchlock musket in 1364, but gunpowder has been around since as early as the 9th century when it was first discovered in China.