Swedish Occupation: Saltpetersjudare: Difference between revisions

Back to [[Sweden]]►  

There is mention of saltpeter being used by the Greeks as early as ca. 1300 A.D.   Saltpeter was one of the ingredients of the first gunpower, black power.  Black powder was discovered around 1300 and was first used for fire crackers. Fire arms were invented around 1400 and required the use of black powder. This put a greater need for saltpeter than could be found in the natural form, so saltpeter had to be produced. The best source of material to produce saltpeter was in cow stables in the decomposing material. There the saltpeter boilers a distinctive profession, dug the soil from stables periodically and extracted the saltpeter. The Saltpeter digger would break open the floor of a stable with a pick axe and dig out the soil with the decomposing material (manure). This soil would later be processed.  

Chemical engineers are now able to produce saltpeter using technical chemistry. It is generally manufactured by treating sodium nitrate, mostly mined in Chile.  

Ulrich Bretscher’s Black Powder page, Saltpeter, http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/saltpeter.html