The Inventor of Gunpowder: Berthold Schwarz

- વિશ્વના વૈજ્ઞાનીઓ

Today's world, which seeks to avoid the atomic bomb, could not have advanced this far without the invention of gunpowder. In olden times, weapons like spears and swords were used. These very weapons were used for hunting and in face-to-face battles. With the invention of the gun, a few soldiers became powerful enough to withstand large armies. In the Middle Ages, the firing of cannons also began. Initially, these tools were operated by hand.

While mixing and igniting different substances, some unknown inventor discovered that igniting a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal resulted in a delayed explosion. Thus, the invention of gunpowder in the Middle Ages was noted in a book about this discovery. But the credit for using this discovery as gun-powder goes to a German monk named Berthold Schwarz.

He placed this mixture in an iron tube and put a stone on top of it. When the powder was ignited through a small hole at the closed end of the tube, the gun fired and the stone was hurled out. Thus, the first gun was invented, and gunpowder began to be used for firing guns. Gradually, the design of the gun improved. The easily usable revolver was invented, and automatic mechanical pistols that could fire many bullets at once were put into use. Small telescopes can also be placed on these pistols to hit a desired target from any distance.

Gunpowder also started being used for blasting tunnels to extract stone from the ground. In the latter half of the 19th century, another extremely explosive substance known as dynamite was discovered. With its help, we succeeded in deep mining.