Old school gunpowder is really called “black powder,” and it was so crucial to the Revolutionary War effort that we went to great (and gross) lengths to try and make it. This week on Reactions, find out what exactly those lengths were.

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Credits:
Producer: Elaine Seward
Writer: Samantha Jones, PhD
Scientific Consultants: Jimmie Oxley, PhD Jack Kelly
Executive Producer: George Zaidan
Production Manager: Hilary Hudson

Music:
Boston Patriots – Kelly Brent Bryarly
Sam Leopard – Cool Ivory

Sources:
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Chemistry_of_Pyrotechnics.html?id=stoY55Kj7wUC
https://www.livescience.com/7476-gunpowder-changed-world.html
https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/3/8886697/the-chemistry-behind-a-firework-explosion
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-chemist-science-fireworks.html
https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/07/02/the-chemistry-of-gunpowder/
http://time.com/4828701/first-fireworks-history-july-4th/
https://www.nap.edu/read/6289/chapter/1
https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/the-gunpowder-shortage/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/song-dynasty/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/raid-bermuda-saved-american-revolution-180970375/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/from-gunpowder-to-teeth-whitener-the-science-behind-historic-uses-of-urine-442390/
http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4130
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wea.2587
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Black_powder
https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/gunpowder.htm
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gun-cotton-and-collodion/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1440-1681.2000.03240.x?sid=nlmpubmed
https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-dynamite-companies/
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/npsg/explosives/Chapter2.pdf
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=240495
https://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/lecontesalt/leconte.html
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/bang.htm#Blac
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119712

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