Forgive my bloomin' ignorance, but also see Sodium Nitrate, a solid for sale-purportedly for use as per our "needs". Would this not be another way for fellows of old to make their solutions.
Related note: with nearly all the things we now know (wrt gunshop chemistry) being called something different back then--could some things be "lost in translation"?
Thanks for the informed information guys.
Wade: Since we don’t have it, it’s tough to say what has been lost, but we do have an awful lot of information on 18th century chemistry. There is a long list of chemicals they used, with wonderful names such as spirit of hartshorn, butter of antimony or phlogisticated air. We know what these compounds are and how they were used, clear back into the dark ages and even to biblical times.
By the end of the 1700’s practical chemistry as it related to gun building was quite sophisticated. For example, early 1800’s British records have a dozen or so different compounds for coloring gun barrels, some of which contain several ingredients. So, regarding this thread in particular, those folks knew very well what aqua fortis was, how it was different from aqua regia, and the various effects of these chemicals on wood and metal.
Regarding sodium nitrate – sodium nitrate can be used to make both nitric acid and gunpowder, although I believe potassium nitrate was more commonly used for these materials.
FYI:
Aqua Fortis (Literally “strong water”) = nitric acid
Aqua Regia (Literally “water of the king”) = a mixture of concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acids, so called because it would dissolve gold
Aqua Vitae (Literally “water of life) = concentrated aqueous ethanol, made by distilling wine
I’ll drink to that.