0:00
this video is sponsored by brilliant
0:07
recreate anything it is at your own risk
0:09
and I do not accept responsibility make
0:11
sure you press the follow button on my
0:13
Instagram as if you were my ex pushing
0:15
my buttons
0:16
Chinese monks discovered black powder in
0:18
the 9th century during their quest for a
0:21
life-extending elixir
0:22
the key ingredients saw Peter had been
0:25
in use by this same culture since late
0:27
centuries BCE for medicinal purposes
0:29
though it was found to be incinerary and
0:32
immediately applied to Warfare the
0:34
Mongols soon emerged as an ambitious and
0:37
violent society and their conquests and
0:39
invasions acted as a vehicle by which
0:41
gunpowder would spread to the rest of
0:43
the world perfecting the formula can be
0:46
noted as the first major landmark in
0:48
technological development the most
0:50
effective ratio was believed to be one
0:52
part sulfur three parts charcoal nine
0:54
part saltpeter according to the 13th
0:57
century Arabian documents sir Roger
0:59
Bacon had been experimenting with
1:01
different ratios however the best ratio
1:03
was found to be 10 sulfur 15 charcoal
1:06
and 75 saltpeter it must have been
1:09
incredibly difficult to figure out this
1:11
ratio as you must have just thrown many
1:13
things together and
1:17
the next big Improvement came when 14th
1:19
century Europeans began adding liquid
1:21
into the mixture this would form a paste
1:24
that would dry and could be ground into
1:26
balls this came to be known as corned
1:29
powder this greatly increased the
1:31
practicality of the Primitive bombs and
1:34
guns as corn powder was more durable
1:36
reliable and safe
1:39
as the European powers emerged into the
1:41
early modern period saltpeter came into
1:43
high demand as the key tool for Warfare
1:46
or the commodity or Empire as one author
1:48
puts it the British and Dutch were the
1:51
key players in this act as France and
1:53
Spain could self-sustain their saltpeter
1:55
Supply at this point India was found to
1:58
be rich in the demanded resources and
2:00
thus various oversea trading companies
2:02
were established to further the European
2:04
interest now that you heard my speech
2:06
Let’s actually go make some as mentioned
2:09
before we’re gonna need the sulfur
2:11
potassium nitrate and charcoal
2:14
to start the black powder Journey we’re
2:16
going to need to measure out 75 grams of
2:18
potassium nitrate this will reflect the
2:20
75 percent that we need for our oxidizer
2:25
next we’re going to measure out the
2:27
charcoal and this is going to be 15
2:29
grams this will act as a fuel for our
2:31
black powder
2:33
this is the same charcoal that I used in
2:35
one of my previous black powder videos
2:37
and you can see the process on how I
2:39
made that in that video
2:41
I wore a mask when I was pouring this
2:43
out as it got in the air pretty well and
2:45
I really don’t want to breathe in the
2:46
charcoal dust
2:48
next we’re going to add the sulfur which
2:50
will lower our ignition temperature in
2:52
the black powder this will be 10 of our
2:55
mixture and it’s going to be 10 grams
2:59
sulfur has always been a very unique
3:01
element to me and I think it’s very
3:03
beautiful in its Elemental form
3:05
stinks like though mixing by hand is a
3:08
very tedious job and we’re actually
3:10
going to need to use a ball mill to get
3:12
everything grounded to a good powder
3:14
a ball mill is very Superior to hand
3:17
mixing
3:18
the ball mail that I’m using today is
3:20
from United nuclear and it’s a pretty
3:22
good ball mill for black powder
3:24
production
3:25
this has some lead balls in it as I’ve
3:28
already made some black powder from it
3:29
before
3:30
lead balls are going to be extremely
3:32
important as you don’t want any Sparks
3:34
to go around as usually people use steel
3:36
or another metal that can spark
3:39
some people use glass or ceramic however
3:41
I found that lead balls work really the
3:43
best they’re extremely dense and they
3:46
work very well as a medium for this
3:48
I wore a mask again when I decided to
3:51
pour everything into the container
3:54
now all we have to do is just let the
3:56
ball Mill Run
3:58
I’ve seen many people only do two hours
4:00
in the ball mill however I think doing
4:02
18 to 24 hours is far better and a lot
4:06
more efficient as everything is a
4:07
homologist mixture
4:10
in my previous video all I did was use a
4:12
mortar and pestle and kind of just mix
4:15
things around in a cup though it really
4:17
didn’t put it into a homologous mixture
4:19
and it really wasn’t that efficient
4:22
the longest part of making this was
4:24
really just waiting for the ball mill to
4:26
be done
4:27
as things start to spin around the lead
4:29
balls will start crushing everything
4:31
together and putting it into a powder
4:36
after 24 hours I open the container
4:38
again with a mask as everything’s gonna
4:40
be pretty powdery
4:42
though you don’t need a mask if you want
4:44
a flammable lung
4:47
as you can see the lead balls are coated
4:49
in a nice gray powder
4:52
the bulk of the patterns at the bottom
4:53
and I’m going to use a metal scoop to
4:55
see if it’s actually a powder
4:58
this confirms that we have a powder and
5:00
it doesn’t need any more time in the
5:01
ball mill
5:02
it might look a little clumpy but that’s
5:05
not really a big deal
5:06
we’re now going to grab a strainer as
5:09
we’re going to separate the lead balls
5:10
from the powder this will also make the
5:12
powder a little bit more of a dust and
5:14
that’s what we’re looking for
5:17
likely there’s a little bit of moisture
5:18
in the powder but it really didn’t
5:20
affect anything in the end
5:22
I was actually worried about the
5:24
strainer breaking as I think I got it
5:25
for like a dollar at the store but it
5:27
actually held up quite nice
5:29
just moving the strainer back and forth
5:31
was enough to do its job
5:34
as you can see it made the clumps go
5:36
away and it’s now more of a powder
5:39
well at least a better powder than the
5:40
clumps that we had
5:42
I used a glass stir Rod just to make
5:44
sure there wasn’t anything that got
5:45
through the strainer that we didn’t want
5:47
in there
5:48
basically I’m just looking for hard
5:49
lumps
5:51
I move this into a new container as
5:53
we’re now going to do what the Europeans
5:55
did and make it into a paste
5:58
normally they’re pressed into little
6:00
pucks and grinded but I don’t have a
6:02
hydraulic press
6:03
or a grinder
6:05
we’re now going to use 99 isopropyl
6:08
alcohol and we’re going to make this
6:10
into a paste one important thing to do
6:12
is to not add so much right away in the
6:14
beginning as you need a specific
6:16
consistency
6:18
I added a little and then I stirred it
6:22
essentially what I was trying to do was
6:24
get this to the consistency of Play-Doh
6:28
I really didn’t need a huge amount of
6:29
isopropyl but I did end up running out
6:31
and I had a substitute using 95 ethanol
6:37
I have seen people use acetone you
6:39
really just need something that’s going
6:40
to evaporate really quick
6:43
if I remember correctly the Europeans
6:45
would just splash some alcohol in there
6:47
once it got to the consistency that I
6:49
liked I actually used my hands and I
6:51
molded it into a ball
6:54
it’s hard to describe what the
6:55
consistency feels like but it’s kind of
6:58
like a Play-Doh that’s a little bit more
6:59
wet
7:01
I use my hands to mash everything
7:03
together and eventually it kind of
7:05
formed into a ball I also had to add a
7:07
little bit more ethanol as it was a
7:09
little too dry for my liking
7:12
if it’s too dry it will just crumble and
7:14
it won’t work for our next step
7:17
when the ball was ready all I needed now
7:19
was a strainer so that we can make our
7:21
granules
7:24
the technique that I use for the
7:26
strainer is acting like if it was my
7:28
heel and I was using one of those Petty
7:30
eggs on it to scratch off all the dead
7:32
skin
7:33
going in a circular motion was proven to
7:36
be the best for me and that was the best
7:38
way to get the granules
7:40
I did have some of it come apart but it
7:43
wasn’t that big of a deal
7:44
when I lifted the strainer up you can
7:46
see that we have these nice granules
7:48
that are still pretty wet
7:50
once I was finished grinding the rest of
7:52
it we had a pretty big pile of the black
7:54
powder
7:56
now we have to wait for this to dry
7:58
before we can use it and really the best
8:00
idea was to spread everything around so
8:03
I could get everything to dry
8:06
I had to be careful as I didn’t want to
8:08
put too much force and crush the granule
8:11
once everything was laid out I left it
8:13
to dry for about one to two hours
8:15
when I came back it went from a dark
8:17
gray to a light gray
8:20
this is a good indication that
8:21
everything had evaporated
8:23
if you look closely at the powder you
8:25
can see that we have seen really nice
8:27
granules in there and we have a couple
8:29
lumps
8:31
to fix this we’re actually going to run
8:33
it through the strainer again and make
8:34
sure that the granules are one size
8:38
I had to be careful not to shake too
8:40
hard or the grander Wolves would turn
8:42
into a powder and that would essentially
8:44
ruin it
8:45
I couldn’t stop at all but I got the
8:47
majority to be granules
8:50
once everything was strained through you
8:52
can see that we have very very beautiful
8:54
granules that are homemade by Kim delic
8:58
such a beautiful chemical concoction but
9:00
it was also used in Wars to kill people
9:03
now it’s my favorite part and we get to
9:05
light up
9:07
[Music]
9:17
and I’ve got to say in all honesty
9:20
um
9:21
it’s the biggest piece of dog that I
9:24
have ever heard
9:35
it was perfect
9:37
perfect everything down to the last
9:40
minute details
9:42
[Music]
9:52
I mean it’s all right like
9:55
[Music]
10:06
my powder looks pretty similar to the
10:08
store-bought but there’s a couple key
10:10
differences
10:11
mine is a little bit lighter in color
10:13
and it burns a lot faster than the
10:15
store-bought
10:17
it also likely had a different density
10:20
as the store-bought one kind of reminded
10:22
me of rocks and mine kind of just
10:25
reminded me of hardened powder
10:28
it’s also possible that they put a
10:30
coating on it so it doesn’t burn as fast
10:33
all in all it was really fun to make and
10:35
I got a lot better results than when I
10:37
last made it
10:38
originally my plan was to test it out in
10:41
a Canon however cannons are kind of
10:43
expensive and I don’t know how to build
10:44
one there’s also something that we can
10:46
do to increase the burn rate and that’s
10:48
thermal Runaway
10:50
thermal runaway describes a process that
10:52
is accelerated by an increased
10:53
temperature in turn releasing energy
10:55
that further increases the temperature
10:57
don’t think I’m that smart I just read
10:59
that off of Wikipedia
11:03
when we put it in a confined space like
11:05
a tube it keeps all of the hot gases
11:07
that come out of the gunpowder right
11:09
near the gunpowder this in return heats
11:12
up the gunpowder and the reaction is
11:14
increased let’s see what that looks like
11:21
foreign
11:33
pretty cool right
11:35
Concepts like thermal runaway can be
11:38
hard to learn and it’s really hard to
11:40
visualize I really wish I had a fun and
11:42
easy way to visualize these things oh
11:44
wait I do and that’s brilliant.org
11:48
I find that most subjects are taught
11:49
wrong and are quite boring to learn now
11:52
if you haven’t heard of brilliant let me
11:54
tell you why you need to know about it
11:55
brilliant is the best way to learn math
11:58
data science and computer science
12:00
interactively brilliant is fun and
12:02
Hands-On with thousands of lessons from
12:04
Basics to Advanced topics and new
12:07
lessons are added every month
12:09
whatever your skill level brilliant
12:11
customizes content to fit your needs and
12:13
lets you solve at your own pace ever
12:15
since signing up for brilliant I have
12:17
learned to think and take information
12:18
and buy size pieces
12:20
the newest course I’ve been learning is
12:22
from the astrophysics course and I’ve
12:24
loved every moment
12:26
to actually see and interact with the
12:28
content is one of the most effective
12:30
ways to learn
12:31
to try everything brilliant has to offer
12:33
free for a full 30 days visit
12:36
brilliant.org kemdelic or click the link
12:39
in the description the first 200 of you
12:41
will get 20 off brilliant’s annual
12:43
premium subscription you really don’t
12:45
want to miss out on this deal so make
12:47
sure you sign up
12:49
also huge shout out to my patreon
12:51
subscribers you guys are really the MVPs
12:53
of this Channel and I really can’t thank
12:55
you enough for all of your support
