Saltpeter

One of the biggest reasons why Europeans did not discover gunpowder is because Europe lacked the proper climate for the production of saltpeter. Saltpeter, the main explosive ingredient in the gunpowder mixture, needs a warm, tropical climate to be produced. The southern region of China is very warm and tropical. Chinese harvested saltpeter for hundreds of years before the first alchemists began to experiment with it. Saltpeter has many qualities that Chinese found useful. One of great importance was its ability to dissolve and transform ores and minerals. The Illustrated Manual on the Subduing of Mercury, published around 1150, makes reference to this highly valuable property of saltpeter.

Sulfur and Carbon

The Chinese used saltpeter for hundreds of years before it was mixed with the other two substances needed to create gunpowder. Pure sulfur, the second most important gunpowder ingredient, was known to Chinese alchemists as early as the second century CE. In The Pharmacopoeia of the Heavenly Husbandman, the author described the process of sulfur purification through the heating of iron pyrite, or fool's gold.

The final ingredient needed to create gunpowder was carbon. Carbon was readily available in almost any organic compound, especially coal. Though Chinese alchemists were not searching for an explosive substance, saltpeter, sulfur and carbon were all regularly used in alchemists' experiments. For example, they might have combined small amounts of saltpeter with small amounts of carbon to purify arsenic.

Chinese combine all three compounds

For hundreds of years the alchemists would combine these three chemicals together for many reasons. Ancient alchemical texts noted that when these three substances were mixed, the results were often flammable. Finally, in 1040 CE, Chinese alchemist Tseng Kung-Liang published the first true gunpowder formula, describing three combinations for three different weapons. They were a quasi-explosive bomb, a burning bomb and a poison-smoke ball. This early proto-gunpowder was not powerful enough to explode because it did not contain enough saltpeter. After this date, Chinese scientists continued to develop gunpowder technology, adding more and more saltpeter, eventaully reaching the necessary 75% required for detonation.China Discovers Gunpowder, Continued