Black-powder is a very dangerous explosive, and one I feared much more than 'modern' HEs like TNT. It does not 'detonate' in the same way as HE, it just burns very fast, the speed being a factor of grain size, pressure and quantity. It requires no detonator or booster pellet, just a spark. Here's an example of its dangers. There's a society in the UK called the 'Sealed Knot', which re-enacts battles from the English Civil War, with authentic contemporary weapons and armour. Invited to France to display at a concours, the black powder was provisioned by the local Gendarmerie, who supplied 200kg instead of 200lb, ie 2.2 times too much. Several hundred trusty English yeomen, dressed as roundheads or royalists, blasted away at each other with muzzle loaded (blank) musketry and cannon all afternoon at the 'Battle of Nazeby'. Then, what to do with all the excess powder? Some (English) fool decided to dig a hole, put over 120lb of powder in it and ignite it as a grand finale! I'll quote verbatum from an eyewitness friend standing some 100 yards from the epicentre.
"As the touchfire was applied to the train, I sensed I was too close and turned to run, too late. It all went off in a mighty flash and I could actually see the shockwave coming towards me, then a massive 'boom'. A man 10 yards nearer than me was bowled over, then I went too. I staggered up, my best 'Dragoons' cotton shirt perforated with burn holes. A huge mushroom cloud of white smoke roared up into the stratoshere. Practically every car in the arena had no glass, some were on their sides. Shop windows had caved in in the village 1.5km up the road. Worse was to follow as there is an Atomic power station nearby and the blast triggered the seismic sensors, shutting it down and triggering a full Civil Disaster Response! The place was suddenly full of firemen and police officers. Amazingly there were no serious injuries and the 'Mad English' were hurredly ecorted to the ferry terminal".
And you can buy this lethal material in the UK still, except that now instead of a few penny-bangers, golden fountains, a small rocket and some 'sparklers', you get a US$200 'display in a box', a fibre block containing upwards of 50 vertical mortars, which throw 'starbursts', 'air-bombs' etc. 200 yards up from your back yard, and all legal! The detonations can be heard for several miles. Utter madness. My advice on fireworks? - don't go anywhere near them, even to an organised display. You would be safer sitting on a thousand pound bomb, whacking it with a club hammer.
Alan
