content_output-039_3 (Q6050)

“It has always appeared to me highly probable that the first discovery of gunpowder might originate from the primeval method of cooking food by means of wood fires on a soil strongly impregnated with nitre, as it is in many parts of India and China. It is certain that from the moment when the aborigines of these countries ceased to devour their food in a crude state, recourse must have been had to such means of preparing it; and when the fires became extinguished some portions of the wood partially converted into charcoal would remain, thus accidentally bringing into contact two of the principal and most active ingredients of this composition under such circumstances as could hardly fail to produce some slight deflagration whenever fires were rekindled on the same spot.... It is certain that such a combination of favourable circumstances might lead to the discovery, although the period of its application to any useful purpose may be very remote from that of its origin.”