Order of discovery.
1st.—The discovery of Nitre, the principal ingredient, and the cause of its detonation.
2nd.—The mixture of nitre with sulphur and charcoal, which, properly speaking, form gunpowder.
3rd.—The application of powder to fire-works.
4th.—Its employment as a propelling agent for throwing stones, bullets, &c.
5th.—Its employment in springing mines and destroying fortifications.
All these discoveries belong to different periods.
Mr. Duten’s account.
Mr. Dutens carried the antiquity of gunpowder very high; and refers to the accounts given by Virgil, and others, of Salmonens’ attempt to imitate thunder, presuming from hence that he used a composition of the nature of Gunpowder.
Known in China, A. D. 85.