The Time that Gunpowder was Made from Poop... (Why natural resources are important in war)

Make sure to like and subscribe to Much Knowledge so that you never miss our exciting and interesting content.
As you can tell from the title, today's video is about how poop was used to make gunpowder. Even if you aren't familiar with how gunpowder is made, you probably weren't expecting poop to be an integral part of it. But, for the confederate army, poop was a major source of their gunpowder. April 12, 1861 (radio voice), the civil war begins. As the war continued, the confederate army had a problem. They were running out of saltpeter, a key component of gunpowder. Without it, they would have nothing left to fight with. Saltpeter, known today as potassium nitrate, supplied the oxygen for gunpowder. The reason gunpowder is so explosive is that the oxygen is contained in it, rather than needing access to air. Theoretically, you could fire a gun in space. The bullet might not come out very well due to the lack of air to transfer the energy, but the gunpowder would certainly ignite. This is why guns still fire underwater. The oxygen in the nitrate is split off by heat and reacts with the other components, charcoal, and sulfur. Charcoal burns and sulfur makes it all happen at a lower temperature as well as burn itself.
Credits/Legal:
Much Knowledge, its name, content, and intellectual property are the property of Hayden Russell. All video, audio, or photos used in the content of Much Knowledge are either owned by Much Knowledge, used by permission or used under the Fair Use doctrine in which existing works of creativity are transformed into entirely new works. Any views, facts, or opinions represented in the content of Much Knowledge is intended as purely educational and entertaining.
While we try our best to make factually accurate videos, we may make some mistakes. If you believe something is incorrect about our videos please let us know in the comments and we will investigate.
Video Production by Hayden and Grady Russell
Background music by Hayden Russell

[@dinosore4782]

Poop farming was a big thing back in those days. Before we knew that diseases could transfer from manure to agricultural product, we used to send all the poop to farms and use it to grow food . And they would do this relatively close to cities where people were still getting water from rivers and wells. The amount of people who died in the 1800’s from water borne illness in the USA is staggering. The craziest part being that some founding fathers wanted to implement sand filters in cities, but citizens voted against it because it would increase taxes. And we are talking millions of deaths in the USA during the 1800’s because of this desire to not raise taxes . It took another 120 years before even the first water filtration plant would be implemented .

[@taylordiamond]

"Theoretically you could fire a gun in space".
Anyone seen that meme of one astronaut holding a gun to another astronauts head while saying "always was"
You lost the game.

[@louderbackbarry]

Now that’s truly shooting the shit

[@MH-jt3lx]

In the past they collected potassium nitrate by pouring urine over straw over a year then extract it from the bio matter.

[@russellmorris4050]

Can poop gunpowder be made on ships floating at sea ?
Thanks Angel NicGillicuddy