Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World

Author - Jack Kelly ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Basic Books was reviewed on 30-Jul-2008.

Search ISBN:0465037186 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World Reference Book. Classifications : General Military History Subjects Books General Conventional Weapons & Warfare Military History Subjects Books General World History Subjects Books Social History Historical Study History Subjects Boo . Click the following link to view the cover of Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World.

Related topics: General. Military. History. Subjects. Books. General. Conventional. Weapons & Warfare. Military. History.

1) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books. Finely written, plenty of interesting details, it´s a masterpiece not only for those somehow devoted to the field of military history, but also to chemists dealing with the surprising field of energetic materials. Thank you, Jack Kelly!¤

2) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books. 1/25/2007

Jack Kelly, 1949-
Gunpowder -- Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World. / Jack Kelly.
New York: Basic Books, 2005. ISBN 0-465-03722-4 (paperback).

Fire speaks to us, says Jack Kelly. Considering that fire is in all liklihood one of the oldest -- if not the oldest -- of mankind´s technological inventions, that´s not surprising. Mr. Kelly succeeds admirably in keeping the fire metaphor close at hand throughout all 242 pages of his text, from the explosions of burning bamboo -- intended to frighten away the Chinese semi-human shan -- to our present-day nuclear fire.

Along the way, we´re treated to a much larger panorama than most of us ever consider. The Chinese, most people are aware, came up with what we term "gunpowder" in the ninth century. They didn´t call it gunpowder, of course -- no such thing as a gun -- but it was used as an elixer designed to render the user immortal; the stuff was made of sulfur, saltpeter, and dried honey. Developments were not quick in the orient, but by the early 1400´s, China´s military was equipped with cannon and individual firearms of a sort.

Gunpowder was to be widely used in Europe, though. While the "cannon" at Crecy and Agincourt may not have been terribly effective, they sounded the death knell for the armored knight / moated castle feudal system. (True, arrows could penetrate plate armor, but an accomplished archer required a lot of training; a soldier could be taught to use a simple firearm -- a matchlock, say -- relatively quickly.) Most of us have some familiarity with the military changes wrought by gunpowder ant its associated firearms, but how many of us know that:

* Christiaan Huygens attempted to devise an internal-combustion ´moteur a explosion´ using gunpowder as the fuel. Only an inability to come up with a way to deliver successive charges to the cylinder prevented the actual fabrication of Huygen´s engine.
* The proximate cause of the American Revolution could be considered British General Gates´ determination to seize all gunpowder in and near Boston. The fights at Lexington and Concord in 1775 were simply the last of a series of raids. (Hmmm... "gun control" through ammunition control... nothing much seems to have changed, has it? One is permitted to cynically hope that the modern-day controllers are no more successful than General Gates.)
* Fulimates and nitrated hydrocarbons (nitrocelulose -- guncotten, and nitroglycerine) were at first developed as substitutes for gunpowder. Their applications were greatly modified, of course: fulminates into the "primers", and the nitro- compounds as components of so-called smokeless powder.

There´s a lot to like in this book, and not much to dislike. The proofreading appears to have been exemplary: there are no glaring spelling arrors, misplaced paragraphs, orphaned sentences, or similar horrors to be found. The illustrations, a mixture of photgraphs, line drawings, and reproductions of what appear to be woodcuts, nicely compliment the text. One point which is at most, a minor annoyance: projectile speeds given in miles per hour jar a bit when one is used to thinking in terms of feet per second. (Yes, it´s easy enough to multiply MPH by 1.47 to get FPS; even 1.5 is pretty close.)

The major strength of this volume is, however, the mixture: it´s not a technical treatise, nor a chemical text, nor a tactical manual, nor a governmental history, nor yet a philosophical tract. It´s all of these; literally, how gunpowder changed the world... the whole world. Jack Kelly has succeeded in fulfilling the promise of his title, and carries us along quite merrily, all the way through to the end. In our present day, he observes that gunpwder, its thousand-year history notwithstanding, has been largely relegated to two of its earliest uses: celebrations and entertainment.

Mr. Kelly thoughtfully supplies an informal "sources consulted" style bibliography, organized by chapter, and a working index, both of which are very welcome, indeed.¤

3) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books. Jack Kelly has written an easy-to-read overview of the evolution of gunpowder development and use from its invention at the turn of the first millennium until it was replaced by synthetics in the 19th century. In fact, synthetics so thoroughly replaced gunpowder that what was once gunpowder is differentiated from its replacements by the term "black powder" while synthetics have taken over the germ gunpowder.

Beginning with its invention and use by the Chinese, who first used gunpowder in an early version of (ineffective) hand grenades, through its first effective use in bombards in Europe, until it became the staple for small arms in the early modern period of history Kelly presents an interesting narrative history on how gunpowder impacted the world. Although there is a technological deterministic aspect to the book (a natural result of the subject) the book does do a good job of putting gunpowder into context - in some cases gunpowder drives further military developments, in others the refinement of gunpowder is driven by other needs. This book is especially interesting if you have any interest in the concept of "military revolution." It focuses on one type of tool over a 900 year period, which allows you to see how one technology evolved, and was integrated into the transformation of war, over a significant period of time.¤

4) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, by Jack Kelly, Basic Books, NY, 2004. Kelly had done a very nice job with this crisp, well written history of gunpowder. He covers the subject nicely, in survey fashion, but with some detailed stories. There´s history, technology, and science-all in fine factual detail but for the general audience. The chemistry, mathematics, metallurgy, and physics are there, but not in rigorous detail. Just enough to whet the appetite for further study. References are included for each chapter, though footnotes are lacking.

A detailed study of the history of gunpowder and related technologies could have gone on for thousands of pages. The author has selected certain stories for focus. He begins in China, and tells especially the European story, and the use of firearms in battle, on land and at sea. He includes some stories from America including the Revolutionary War, the story of Samuel Colt, and the Dupont story of gunpowder. He ends with development of the A-bomb, but really coverage ends at the beginning of the Twentieth Century with smokeless powder. There is no mention of lead mining or the famous shot towers. Kelly covers the abundance of saltpeter in the warm climate of China, its general shortage in Europe, and the extensive efforts to collect and extract it in Britain and France. But there is no mention of the Nobel Prize winning Borne-Haber process, invented in World War I in Germany, that resolved the nitrate shortage by making synthetic nitric acid from air and fossil fuels (natural gas, naphtha, coal), as is still practiced today.

The book is highly readable and will be appreciated by those interested in history, science, and technology. Index.
¤

5) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books. I liked the authors´ treatment of the subject, and his plausible explaination for how Gunpowder evolved as a resource, as well as the impetus for modern warfare. He brings up quite a few points which make for intersting reading. Definitely one of the better books I read in 2004.¤

6) Hardcover Book Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World by Basic Books.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 27-Aug-2008, 04650371869780465037186, 900-880-860-080-420-540-8

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