ABSTRACT
Historians of science tell us that the explosives industry began with gunpowder, made by hand-mixing potassium nitrate (saltpetre), carbon (charcoal) and sulphur in a chemist's mortar. Most schoolboys are familiar with this basic mixture from their chemistry lessons, where they were taught that the ideal proportions should be based on the atomic weights of the components, about 75:13:12. However, the gunpowder of the thirteenth century, developed by the English philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon, was rather short on the saltpetre, and his proportions were about 40:30:30. It is of interest that Bacon was born near Ilchester in Somerset and that he turned to science and philosophy when forced to retire from his work as an academic. There is hope here for all disillusioned academics! Like so many creative inventors his work was marked by a foresight based on imaginative speculation, in which he combined the cross-reading of various sciences with a knowledge of the ways of history and human error.
