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gunpowder: Quick Facts

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Photos and Videos

A traditional powder horn with a leather strap is shown next to a pile of loose black gunpowder granules.
Berthold der Schwarze discovering gunpowder, illustration from Le Petit Journal, c. 1901.
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Key People

Portrait of French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, shown in formal 18th-century attire with a white wig and ruffled cravat, looking slightly to his left.
Antoine Lavoisier
French chemist
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Cai Guo-Qiang
Chinese artist
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Sir Andrew Noble, 1st Baronet
British physicist
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Thomas Jackson Rodman
American inventor
Berthold der Schwarze discovering gunpowder, illustration from Le Petit Journal, c. 1901.
Berthold der Schwarze
German monk and alchemist
Roger Bacon
Roger Bacon
English philosopher and educational reformer

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