How does black powder work?

I'm doing a speech on black powder for english class, and was wondering what are the chemical reactions that occurr when black powder is lit, the ingredients are sulfur charcoal and KNO3( potassium nitrate) any other information you have would be helpful thanks!How does black powder work?
Black powder is a mixture of charcoal, saltpetre (KNO3), and sulfur. Black powder is not classified as a high explosive due to the rate of change from solid to gasses. It does not detonate, it deflagerates (burns rapidly). Pyrotechnicians use a formulation of 75% KNO3 15% Charcoal, and 10% sulfur. The best way to mix black powder is using a ball mill. A ball mill is a peice of equipment (looks like a cement mixer) and has either chromium ball bearings or brass bearings (thus because they do not spark when rubbed together) rolling amongst the powders as a crushing media. People sometimes use quarters because they are non sparking also. The reason why it is so effective to ball mill is because the rolling ball bearings in turn press the KNO3 and sulphur into the porous charcoal


Some reactions occurring within the ignition of black powder are:





A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of black powder is:


2 KNO3 + S + 3 C 鈫?K2S + N2 + 3 CO2. easy understanding as:


2 mols KNO3 + 1 mol sulfur + 3 mols charcoal =


1 mol K2S + 1 mol nitrogen + 3 mols carbon dioxide





An interesting fact is the white smoke produced by the reaction is the Potassium Sulfide (K2S) being generated. Thus why the smoke smells like sulfur





A more accurate, but still simplified, equation is





10 KNO3 + 3 S + 8 C 鈫?2 K2CO3 + 3 K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5 N2.








If anything else is needed please feel free to contact me.


Some information pages are:How does black powder work?
Here's a page that does a great job of explaining black powder chemical reactions, as used in fireworks: http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/CHEMWEEK/fir鈥?/a>