
Ulrich Bretscher's Black Powder Page (2006) - pepys
http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/homemade_bp.html
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mirimir
There's an accurate description of black powder production in Cormac
McCarthy's _The Blood Meridian_. Done during a trek through the desert, so
they used urine instead of water. I wonder if the urea helps. Anyway, when I
was a kid, I had an old recipe book. I used gum Arabic as a binder.

~~~
juliangoldsmith
It's certainly possible the urea helps. I know that Cody from Cody's Lab used
urine to get nitrates when he made black powder. He did, however, let the
urine sit, to allow bacteria to break it down.

~~~
mirimir
The Priest purified potassium nitrate from bat guano.

And now I find that urea is a stabilizer, which increases the ignition
temperature, and reduces the risk of accidental ignition.

> I have found that the above objects are accomplished when the black powder
> composition contains a stabilizing ingredient consisting of a solid organic
> basic compound. While the inclusion of such an ingredient is particularly
> desirable in black powders containing ammonium nitrate as a portion of the
> oxidizing material, I may include this stabilizer to advantage also in all
> types of black powders. Various compounds-may be used, with beneficial
> results, preferably from the class of solid aliphatic basic compounds, for
> example guanidine, dicyandiamide, urea, and the 5 like. Various aromatic
> basic compounds likewise may be employed, such as diphenylamine. Preferably
> I make use of urea for bringing about the desired results.

[https://www.google.com/patents/US2030096](https://www.google.com/patents/US2030096)

But that's a 1936 patent, so the Priest was either prescient or Corman was
anachronistic.

