According to Webster’s, Giant Powder was a blasting powder consisting of nitroglycerin, sodium nitrate, sulfur, rosin, and sometimes kieselguhr.
Ouch.
By Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack. Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA. I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed. I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
Ouch.
Black powder has been around for ~1000 years and may have been in Europe for at least 750. I was about to make a snarky comment about that should have been long enough to have figured out how to store it safely … but then realized there might be a good reason to keep it in the smithy. Namely, the heat would tend to help keep it dry and useful.
The danger of explosion may have been seen as outweighed by the risk it would become damp and useless. They didn’t have Ziploc baggies or Tupperware back then, after all.
I am tired of reading about cases where dynamite was taken to fire sources to defrost with horrible consequences. There was a great amount of IDGAF by certain people when it came to handling explosives back then.
Probably still is, actually, given the YouTube tannerite videos…