(n.) A black, granular, explosive substance, consisting of an intimate mechanical mixture of niter, charcoal, and sulphur. It is used in gunnery and blasting.
Example Sentences:
(1) The local undertakers were pleased to discover the great Henty to be the man they had always imagined - a full-bearded giant, stern and wise, dressed like a warrior hero or - much the same thing - a Victorian gentleman with the whiff of gunpowder and the clash of sabres about him.
(2) Built in the 1570s and known as a 'miniature Hampton Court', it was once owned by one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators.
(3) We were able to remove most of the foreign body particles from a fresh wound caused by a gunpowder blast to the face, using microsurgical techniques.
(4) The report of the post-mortem by the St Louis County medical examiner said that the largest gunshot wound found on Brown’s body was on his right hand, and that tissue from the wound appeared to contain gunpowder particles.
(5) Martin's clothing was scorched by gunpowder while the bullet hole in his chest was not, he said, proving that there was "at least an inch, or two or three" separating his clothing from his skin.
(6) And he had the cheek to call us “a roomful of gunpowder”.
(7) When one of the gunmen shot the lady who had been on the phone and I could smell the gunpowder, I knew the gunmen must've seen us.
(8) The quantities of gunpowder particles on the targets which were calculated by stereoscopic microscope increased distinctly in vertical shot direction (from above downwards), especially at distances 2 and 2.5 m and particle flight distance rose; in horizontal shot direction distances of gunpowder particle flight didn't exceed 2-3 m.
(9) After opening the windscreen they used a water charge in an attempt to render any gunpowder inert.
(10) Whitworth Gallery Manchester After a £15m refit and extension, the Whitworth reopens with multiple exhibitions and displays, including key works and new commissions by Cornelia Parker, the beautiful watercolours of Thomas Schütte, and a 45-metre-long gunpowder drawing by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang (who devised the unforgettable fireworks for the Beijing Olympics), originally conceived for the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
(11) One Whitehall source said: "One whiff of gunpowder and Downing Street runs away.
(12) The witnesses said that in late June he began equipping himself with a helmet, gas mask and body armour; and in July he began buying fuses, gunpowder, chemicals and electronics to booby-trap his apartment in the hope of triggering an explosion and fire to divert police from the theatre.
(13) Blast tattoos occur when fragments of gunpowder are propelled into the skin during a firearm discharge.
(14) I walked about 2 steps in the door, and screamed, and shut my eyes, when I heard him move, I started firing.” Byrom’s lawyers stressed in their submission to the court that Edward Jr knew where his father’s gun was kept, led police to the murder weapon, and was found to have gunpowder residue on his palms after the killing, while Gillis did not.
(15) A series of public green spaces along the waterways add up to Maryland’s largest state park: Gunpowder Falls.
(16) It was not marked with his fingerprints and no significant trace of gunpowder was found on his body.
(17) Major General Huang Yongyin said China needed to match the defensive efforts of other major nations, arguing: "For national security, the internet has already become a new battlefield without gunpowder."
(18) The bomb was made up of gunpowder of the sort that could be obtained from fireworks, three propane tanks and two five-gallon containers full of petrol.
(19) Even in translation there are some great lines – “we have taken the drum of gunpowder as our rhythm and the sound of machine guns as our melody”.
(20) Jensen, who ran a construction company and had legitimate knowledge of demolitions, said the conversation did not seem abnormal because "men and boys are interested in gunpowder and bullets and fast cars".
Saltpetre
Definition:
(n.) Potassium nitrate; niter; a white crystalline substance, KNO3, having a cooling saline taste, obtained by leaching from certain soils in which it is produced by the process of nitrification (see Nitrification, 2). It is a strong oxidizer, is the chief constituent of gunpowder, and is also used as an antiseptic in curing meat, and in medicine as a diuretic, diaphoretic, and refrigerant.
Example Sentences:
(1) Buy as little as possible – even 50g will be enough for several fully grown pigs – and weigh it carefully, as saltpetre is toxic in high doses.
(2) Obviously, the change from vegetable dyes to saltpetre for the coloring or color preservation, respectively, of meat occurred between 1600 and 1750, probably near 1700.
(3) For each kilo of meat, you'll need 30g salt, 10-30g sugar (depending how sweet you like your bacon), up to 10g of whatever dried herbs and spices you fancy – much more if you're using fresh – and just 0.25g to 1g of saltpetre, AKA potassium nitrate or KN03.
(4) Its features are comparable but not quite identical with those of Christensen's saltpetre-induced PXE which the author considers to be an exogenous variety of pseudoxanthoma elasticum.
(5) In order to settle the question of when saltpetre (nitrate) came in use as an additive to human food, a number of historic cookery books from Germany and Austria were reviewed.
(6) He pioneered new technologies – one of which bears his name – to produce saltpetre by oxidising nitrogen from air, and made industrial quantities of hydrogen by water electrolysis.