Gunpowder火药Gunpowder is considered to be one of the four great inventions of ancient China.火药是中国古代的“四大发明”之一。The invention of gunpowder had a close relationship with the advanced ancient workmanship of smelting industry. People began to know a lot of chemistry know-ledge about the nature of different mineral materials during the process of smelting operation. With the knowledge,ancient necromancers tried to seek the elixir of immortality fromcertain kinds of ores and fuel. Al-though they failed to get what they were looking for, they dis-covered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) in a certain proportion.This mixture finally led to the invention of gunpowder al-though its exact date of invention still remains unknown.火药的发明者与中国古代繁盛的冶金技术有紧密的关系。在冶金金属的过程中，人们大大总结经验，渐渐认识和熟知了许多矿物的性能，累积了非常丰富的化学科学知识。

从战国时代起，就有人把冶金技术运用到提炼矿物药方面，梦想能炼出长生不老的药来，也有人想要从矿物中炼出金银来。虽然没炼出长生不老的丹药或金银，但是炼丹工匠们在炼丹的过程中找到，硝石、硫磺与含碳物质在一起冷却后不会再次发生轻微的化学反应。在一次次发生爆炸中，人们渐渐认识到硝石、硫磺、木炭按一定比例提炼，将不会做成不会能发生爆炸的火药。

Many historical materials indicate that gunpowder first appeared before the Tang Dynasty.It was called “Black Gunpowder” because irs black in color.It was firsf used to make firecrackers and fireworks. The military appliccrtions of gunpow-der began in the Tang Dynasty. The earliest weapon made from gunpowder was“Flying Fire”, tha. is, rocket.During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the military ap-plications of gunpowder became common and some other weapons like “fire can-non” ,“rocket”, “missile”and “fireball”were introduced.火药发明者的明确年代已不得而知考证，但根据资料可以推测，火药发明者的时间不应在唐代以前。由于这种火药的颜色是黑色的，所以叫作“黑火药”。火药发明者后，趁此机会被做成了爆竹和焰火。

唐朝末年，火药开始用作军事。最先的火药武器是“飞火”，即火箭。宋、元时期，军事上广泛应用火药，经常出现了许多火药武器，主要有火箭、火铳、牙火枪、火炮等。

Between 1225 crnd 1248, gunpowder and the related weapons spread to Eu-rope via Arabia. Since the major raw material of gunpowder niter is as white as snow, Arabians called gunpowder “Chinese Snow” and “Chinese Salt”. After gunpowder spread into Europe, it was not only used in weapons, and also for cut-ting through mountains, constructing roads, and digging rivers. The invention of gunpowder accelerated the coming of the Industrial Revolution.公元1225—1248年之间，火药和火药武器经由阿拉伯传遍欧洲。因为生产火药的主要原料硝石洁白如雪，所以火药被阿拉伯人称作“中国雪”和“中国盐”。

火．药传遍欧洲后，被各国用来生产兵器，还在开山、修路、挖河等工程中普遍用于，火药的用于增进了工业革命的来临。

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