Gunpowder was probably discovered in China accidentally. Since the Han period (202 BCE–AD 220) Chinese alchemists attempted to make gold or to prepare an elixir of immortality. Sulfur and saltpeter were among the raw materials used for their experiments, and charcoal was among the different types of fuel used in their laboratories. The Zhenyuan miaodao yaolue (Classified Essentials of the Mysterious Dao of the True Nature of Things), a book of the late Tang but probably containing material from much earlier dates, carries a note of caution to the alchemists warning them to exercise due care when dealing with sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal because there were cases where the operators had their hands scorched or their thatched huts set on fire.
In China gunpowder found its early use in amusements, in religious and ceremonial functions, taking the form of fireworks and rockets, and in construction works, such as blasting rocks in the opening of waterways and roads. For example explosives...
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Buchanan, Brenda J., ed. Gunpowder: The History of an International Technology. Bath, England: Bath University Press, 1996.
Needham, Joseph. Gunpowder as the Fourth Power, East and West. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1985.
Needham, Joseph, et al. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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Yoke, H.P. (2008). Gunpowder. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9774
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