Why does gunpowder ignite

The stun gun shown here is advertised as producing a , volt spark. The sparks were certainly loud and impressive, and they easily burned tiny holes through a piece of paper placed between the electrodes, but would they ignite powder? Hundreds of sparks were struck into a pile of Hodgdon's Tite-Group smokeless powder left and Swiss black powder right with absolutely no effect except for bouncing the grains around.

The sparks were striking the grains, and you can see flashes when the spark hits the surface of the granules, but never once would the powder ignite! The photo below shows a spark from the stun gun going completely through a line of black powder stuck to a piece of masking tape, and although hundreds of grains were simultaneously hit, nothing happened. My first thought was that the granules were simply being blown out of the way, and if the powder was confined loosely packed in a breech, they would be held in place and therefore ignite.

To accomplish this, a breechplug was made with a spark-plug like tip. An insulator was cut from ZTA ceramic "ceramic steel" , and contained a central electrode connecting to the spark source - in this case, the stun gun. As you can see here on the right, there are nice, hot sparks inside the collar, which is used here as a substitute for a barrel. However, when the smokeless powder was packed into the space around the electrode, passing sparks through it as seen here had no effect.

Some granules were 'popped' up into the air, and a faint spark can be seen under the powder, but nothing else happened.

The same thing was tried with black powder, but still no ignition. My conclusion was that it is virtually impossible to set off gunpowder - either smokeless or black powder - with any type of spark source.

My first venture into electrically fired rifles was this black powder breechloader with electric ignition. It uses the conductive properties of graphited black powder to heat the granules to ignition with a volts from a photo flash capacitor.

As voltage is applied to the black powder packed in the chamber around the electrode, the current flows through the graphite coating of the granules and heats them to their ignition point.

Because the current is dumped so quickly, the ignition is instantaneous. The photo to the left is of about one grain of Swiss BP being fired using this principle. However, this will not work with smokeless powder since it is practically non-conductive. The image to the left shows a high voltage power supply which can run off a 12 volt battery and puts out 7, volts of high frequency alternating current.

It can deliver about seven watts, and the arc it produces is very 'smooth' and does not displace the powder granules. The photo to the right shows an arc that can be struck from its 'hot' wire. Here is a test of the HVAC system setting off smokeless powder in the test fixture. On the upper right side of the image you can see the spark jump to the clip, where it then travels to the igniter and sets off the powder. This is the system I used in the fourth version of my rifle, and it very effectively sets off the smokeless powder charge - but with one 'small' hitch It seems to explode because when it is compressed in a barrel, it is packed in a very tiny space which means great pressure.

So when it burns very fast, in a very confined space, the gases are built up and "explodes". Why does gunpowder explode when lit?

Answer 1: It doesn't, actually. Answer 2: Excellent question! Answer 3: What makes gunpowder seem to "explode" is because it burns very rapidly.

The source of that potassium nitrate aka saltpetre or KNO3 , carbon and sulfur is … gunpowder aka black powder , which is made of 75 percent KNO3, 15 percent carbon e. The Chemistry of Gunpowder.

Once gunpowder is burned or used what is the chemical breakdown of the residue? Like when bullet is show, what is the chemical makeup of the residue in the casing? The residue after a gun is shot can be quite complicated in terms of its chemical composition, as not only the gunpowder but the primer used to set off the gunpowder can contribute to it.

My question is this: Is the chemical reaction given in the graphic complete? From what I understand, there are numerous extra reagents at play here. If that is the case, can you tell me what compounds those are, and what affect they have on the gasses that are released in this reaction? More than happy to answer questions! As the graphic states, the equation given is a simplified one; really, there are a myriad of reactions occurring during the combustion of black powder.

This is an overall equation, taking into account a number of different reactions which occur during the burning of black powder. He also goes into a little detail about some of the individual reactions — the book is free to view for that portion at least on Google Books.

The above equation is to complicated to understand i thought that is why once a persona short by gun is going to die. But my question is that from above equation which chemical formula once contact with blood it kill blood cell? Without the constant burning of black powder, could everyone, still occupy the land in which they currently live on? I beg to differ. Could the burning of black powder be for the sole purpose that none matter entities can exist?

What type of reaction is this? Potassium nitrate thermally decomposes, the oxygen generated by this decomposition then proceeds to react in a combustion reaction with the carbon, to give but two examples. Can you tell me are there any substitute substances that can be used for testing to replace gunpowder with.