Brown powder

[shootrj2003]

I posted this on TMA but those who aren't there, just some interesting powder history[I thought it was anyway]

history-BROWN powder     

This is from the NRA ilustrated reloading handbook-2nd printing-1960;page 12-BLACKPOWDER,3rd section after a report on a Mr. Rodman learning of the advantages of compressing blackpowder in production.
Brown Powder
''In persuance of this line an advantage was found in using underburnt charcoal in the powder.The resulting brown powder, made with the help of the instrumentation mentioned[Rodman pressure guage invented 1861],gave performance not very much below that of the later smokeless .It was the highest development of blackpowder.Coming at the end of the backpowder age,it was superceded by smokeless after little more than a decade, and dissappeared after too short a period to make a lasting impression.The blackpowder which has remained in use,principally for small arms sporting and muzzleloader ammunition and for mining,is of conventional type ''
,I thought it might be of interest on the subject  of blackpowder history.
I go forth armed and girded as a free man.

[crazell]

thanks for letting us know. info is always a good thing.

[Razor]

Yes, very interesting..
Thanks for sharing..

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

Good info, I did not know. Thanks

[NAULTRICK1]

Have made powder and experimented with different types of wood and stages of charcoal and have gotten good powder with slightly "underdone" charcoal, makes for good fast powder but I found it hard to achieve airfloat quality fineness, It was just easier to "charcoalize" the wood more thoroughly to gain the airfloat quality. Thanks for the post, It's always nice to know that others found out the same things, makes me think that I'm on the right track 

[shootrj2003]

Naultricki'
Please explain ''airfloat quality fineness''

[NAULTRICK1]

About the same fineness as talc or fine ground flour- airfloat is just what it sounds like-so fine that it don't take but a slight puff of air to have it disperse, mostly this is achieved with a ball mill but a coffee grinder will get ya close-the reason it should be so fine is ensure a more integrated mix with the KNO3 and sulpher which should be milled to the same consistency, brown charcoal still has a slight amount of moisture in it holding the fibers together so airfloat is harder to achieve but when properly mixed with the other two ingredients the charcoal has a larger ratio of combustible material and oxygen and can produce a "fast" powder.

[Bison Horn]

Very interesting, thanks for posting. BH

[shootrj2003]

Thanks for the info it actually explained why my stuff years ago only fizzled like a flare. it was burning slow because it was not ground fine enough.

[NAULTRICK1]

It can also be your wood choice and how your charcoal is made- best wood for charcoal is willow, I prefer balsa-you don't get as much because of the lightness of the wood but it makes for excellent light airfloat and grinds extremely fine. How your charcoal is made can also be a crucial factor ie: if too much is allowed to burn off and air gets to it during the charcoaling it makes for poor burning powder. I had a lot of fun experimenting with different techniques in it's production and different procedures in mixing, drying and corning and eventually produced some equal to or better than commercial grade, (For the day when they take the right of all of us to purchase Good BP).