It may be small, black and grainy but put enough of it together and you're going to get one hell of a bang. Gunpowder, in its earliest incarnation,   was a potent combination of potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal known as "black powder" - nowdays it's more likely to be a nitrocellulose or nitrocellulose/nitroglycerin mix. Whatever the formula, it's especially useful if your surname happens to be Fawkes. DP

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