Innovations & technologies

Gunpowder Was Invented Accidentally When the Chinese were trying to create a potion of immortality.

Chocolate chip cookies, penicillin, the microwave — some inventions which have had huge impacts on the world were discovered by accident, when the people who created them were trying to achieve something very different.

There is one invention, however, which was developed over a thousand years ago and quite literally came on the scene with a bang: gunpowder.

Gunpowder was invented in ancient China, and was called huo yao, or flaming medicine, according to the Travel China Guide. In the 9th century, Chinese alchemists were bent on trying to discover a formula which would produce an elixir of immortality.

Thoughtco reports that, while experimenting with saltpeter (potassium nitrate), one enterprising, if now nameless, alchemist hit upon a formula which was 75 parts saltpeter, 15 parts charcoal, and 10 parts sulphur. It didn’t bestow eternal life, but the mixture did explode in a spectacular way when it came into contact with fire.

One record from the time noted that the explosion was enough that it not only burned the alchemist’s hands and face, it also destroyed the house, according to Live Science.