Beginning of Essay
Gunpowder is the oldest of all explosives. It was used by the ancient Chinese, Arabs, and people of India first. But exact directions on how to make it were not known to the western World until 1242, when Roger Bacon of Oxford University, in England publis ....

Middle of Essay
.... forces to push the cannonball to it's target. A new way to make gunpowder into grains, instead of powder, was invented in the fourteen hundreds. In this method you would moisten it and pound it into a cake. Then it was broken into small bits and put into a sieve to be sifted. The pieces that came through the sieve were different shapes and would not fit together well enough to pack tightly, so that careful packing of a cannon was not necessary. When a long-barreled, rifled cannon came into use, it became necessary to slow down the burning rate of the gunpowder. Its swift explosive force would often burst the barrel of the gun, ....