Year of Invention: 1261
What Is It? An explosive mixture of three powdered ingredients: saltpeter,
charcoal, and sulfur.Who Invented It? Roger Bacon (in Paris, France)
Gunpowder revolutionized warfare and military thinking. Canons, muskets, rockets, and bombs powered by black gunpowder swept away all weapons and forces that existed before them.
But gunpowder was more than just a weapon. Gunpowder was a tremendous boon to civil engineering. Quarrying, cathedral foundations, and roadways were developed easier and faster. Gunpowder fundamentally changed the way engineers thought about major earth-moving construction.
Before gunpowder, warfare relied on four weapons: sword, shield, lance, and bow. Before gunpowder, construction projects relied on brute physical force and labor. Large civil engineering works (roads, mines, dams, etc.) required the dedicated use of hundreds—if not thousands—of workers (usually slaves).
Gunpowder was first invented and used by the Chinese sometime between A.D. 850 and 1000. Nothing is recorded about who first created it or about the process of development used. In 1261, English-born scientist Roger Bacon developed and tested the formula on his own. And we do know how Bacon invented this explosive cocktail of chemicals.
In 1237, and at the tender age of only 17, Roger Bacon was appointed regent master at a Paris monastery, teaching arts and sciences. A brilliant thinker of his era, Bacon predicted and described with amazing accuracy steamships, automobiles, and airplanes 500 to 700 years before their existence and 300 years before Galileo described them. He invented the magnifying glass and conducted advanced optic studies. By 1260, he was often called “Doctor Mirabilis” (Doctor Wonderful).
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: 100 Greatest Science Inventions of All Time.
Contributors: Kendall Haven - Editor.
Publisher: Libraries Unlimited.
Place of publication: Westport, CT.
Publication year: 2006.
Page number: 30.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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