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[Janet Koch]

I'm guessing someone here can help with this ... my husband and I recently rented the movie "National Treasure." The first one, which is almost four years old, I think. In one of the early scenes, the good guys uncover a ship locked in Arctic ice for roughly 170 years.

Below decks there are trails of gunpowder that conviently lead to the numerous small barrels of gunpowder that are lying about. The bad guys light a trail of gunpowder which lights and burns a line to the barrels which go ka-BLUE-ey and the ship blows sky high.

Does gunpowder ignite that way? Would it ignite while frozen? Would it still be ignite-able at 170 years old? Would it ignite while frozen AND that old?

Thanks!
Janet

[Peg H]

Mythbusters did a whole thing on fire following a trail of black powder and exploding a keg full.  Their final conclusion?  Plausible.

Peg H 

[Janet Koch]

Plausible, huh? Interesting. But if the gunpowder was frozen? And 170 years old?

Janet

[Elena]

From what I remember playing around with various explosives, the frozen gunpowder would fizzle out as the warmth created moisture which would put out the fire.  Keeping black powder dry is critical to it's function. 

However, I have no idea about the effects of age on it's chemistry.

Elena

[Kathy Wendorff]

Well, from an online article  "Gunpowder: An Insider's View" from
Guns Magazine,  August, 2001  by Holt Bodinson comes this:

"That foul-smelling, smoky mixture called blackpowder begins to appear in historical accounts around 800 A.D. Composed of 15 percent charcoal, 75 percent potassium nitrate, and 10 percent sulfur, the chemistry of this basic mixture is relatively simple. The charcoal is the fuel; potassium nitrate, the oxidizer; sulfur facilitates the ignition process...
Finally, around the 16th century, someone developed the process of adding water to the mixture, rolling it out, letting it dry, crushing it and sorting out the grains by size. Essentially, blackpowder remains unchanged today. If it has a redeeming quality, it is its incredible stability. This, of course, can be seen in the occasional report of an antique muzzleloader, left loaded for years, discharging when the trigger is pulled."

So that suggests old gunpowder pretty stable. The cold temperature would tend to keep it "good" longer.  And once you get it lit, the reaction itself gives off a ton of heat, which would heat the neighboring grains of gunpowder enough to in turn ignite the next ... so I guess the moisture is the the critical factor.

Humidity can be pretty low in cold weather, and if there's no open water, any water/frost in the gunpowder might sublimate away and leave it very dry -- on the other hand, if there is water around, that might be a problem, as Elena says.

Short answer -- you got me!

Kathy W.

[Janet Koch]

Incredible stability. Hmm. So it's really the question is how much moisture would be present....reminds me of all those historial novels where the soldiers are trying so hard to keep their power dry.

Thanks, Kathy and Elena!

Janet

[Peg H]

Humidity can be pretty low in cold weather, and if there's no open water, any water/frost in the gunpowder might sublimate away and leave it very dry --

Ask anyone who has lived in Alaska (I lived there for a time) the winters are extremely dangerous because it is a dry cold.  You don't feel it as much, and because of that, frost bite has always been a problem since oftentimes you don't realize how cold you are until the damage is done.  So I'm betting the farther north you get there is even less humidity.


  Peg H

[Elena]

Humidity can be pretty low in cold weather, and if there's no open water, any water/frost in the gunpowder might sublimate away and leave it very dry --

Seems to me once again the author can have it which ever way s/he wants - to make it work, the bad guys would know to keep the stuff dry and that the dry cold would just preserve it.  On the other hand, if the author wants it to fizzle, then they don't know this and take it back into wherever they are living to huff and puff on it with their humid breath while they sit next to the wood stove that has a humidifier bubbling away on top.

Much fun   
Elena

[Lance Charnes]

The other question to ask is, how did the ship survive without being crushed in the icepack -- the usual fate of ships in its predicament?