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Saltpeter   Listen
noun
Saltpetre, Saltpeter  n.  (Chem.) Potassium nitrate; niter; a white crystalline substance, KNO3, having a cooling saline taste, obtained by leaching from certain soils in which it is produced by the process of nitrification (see Nitrification, 2). It is a strong oxidizer, is the chief constituent of gunpowder, and is also used as an antiseptic in curing meat, and in medicine as a diuretic, diaphoretic, and refrigerant.
Chili saltpeter (Chem.), sodium nitrate (distinguished from potassium nitrate, or true salpeter), a white crystalline substance, NaNO3, having a cooling, saline, slightly bitter taste. It is obtained by leaching the soil of the rainless districts of Chili and Peru. It is deliquescent and cannot be used in gunpowder, but is employed in the production of nitric acid. Called also cubic niter.
Saltpeter acid (Chem.), nitric acid; sometimes so called because made from saltpeter.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Saltpeter" Quotes from Famous Books



... life. It is, however, pretty well proved that this story ought to be ranked among the legends of the middle ages. Gunpowder was not invented by any one; it was the lineal successor of the Greek fire, which, like itself, was composed of sulfur and saltpeter. Few persons are acquainted with the mechanical power of gunpowder. Now this is precisely what is necessary to be understood in order to comprehend the importance of the question submitted ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne

... their petition to the Continental Congress, permission was granted to send Stiles' ship, the Sea Nymph (Samuel Stobel, master), laden with provisions to be paid for by the people of Bermuda either in gold or arms, ammunition, saltpeter, sulphur ...
— The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia • Frank Cousins

... make gun powder if we could find a deposit of saltpeter. We already know where there's a little sulphur. The guns would have to be converted to flintlocks, though, since we don't have what we need for cartridge priming material. Worse, we'd have to use ...
— Space Prison • Tom Godwin

... New Orleans. Most of the cannon ball used in this battle had been made at the old iron furnace in Bath County, near where Owingsville now stands, and a great portion of the powder had been manufactured from the saltpeter leached from the soil in Mammoth Cave, ...
— The story of Kentucky • Rice S. Eubank

... of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably incorrectly. Bacon and other men of his time seem to have been familiar with the composition of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER



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