GUNPOWDER Gunpowder is the oldest of all explosives. It was used by the ancient Chinese, Arabs, and people of India first. But exact directions on how to make it were not known to the western World until 1242, when Roger Bacon of Oxford University, in England published a book in which he told the ways to make gunpowder. Today gunpowder is not used as much as more powerful explosives After Roger Bacon published his formula for …showed first 75 words of 1707 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1707 total…is used shoot rockets into the air. Finer and more loosely packed gunpowder explodes to destroy the rocket once it is in the air. Manufactures add small amounts of special chemicals to the gunpowder to create colors. They add sodium compounds to make yellows, strontium compounds to make red, and copper and barium compounds for blue and green. Charcoal is another substance that can be added. It provides the rocket with a sparkling flaming tail.