If that statement is saltpeter and the othering of perpetrators is charcoal, here's the sulfur that gives the gunpowder:
AHA! you have revealed another source of your "serpentine" wisdom... ...the charcoal is the fuel, the saltpeter supplies the oxygen, and the sulfur is the catalyst...
so, to go completely offtopic... in the guardians of the flame... a group of college students get sucked into a fantasy role playing campaign world... they find out quickly that it's not a game anymore when they are in a combat which turns out to be quite deadly... and when they think they have solved all of their problems by remembering the formula for gunpowder, they are confronted with further complications in game theory when one of their group betrays them by sharing the formula for gunpowder with their enemies!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-07-28 02:29 pm (UTC)AHA!
you have revealed another source of your "serpentine" wisdom...
...the charcoal is the fuel, the saltpeter supplies the oxygen, and the sulfur is the catalyst...
amusingly enough, i originally learned the formula for black powder from a fantasy series called The Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg, "the man who wrote the book" on legally carrying a handgun in Minnesota! He even has a livejournal...
so, to go completely offtopic... in the guardians of the flame... a group of college students get sucked into a fantasy role playing campaign world... they find out quickly that it's not a game anymore when they are in a combat which turns out to be quite deadly... and when they think they have solved all of their problems by remembering the formula for gunpowder, they are confronted with further complications in game theory when one of their group betrays them by sharing the formula for gunpowder with their enemies!