雙語科技百科(化學) 第41期:火藥
Gunpowder
Gunpowder is considered to be one of the four great inventions of ancient China.
火藥是中國古代的“四大發明”之一。The invention of gunpowder had a close relationship with the advanced ancient workmanship of smelting industry. People began to know a lot of chemistry know-ledge about the nature of different mineral materials during the process of smelting operation. With the knowledge,ancient necromancers tried to seek the elixir of immortality fromcertain kinds of ores and fuel. Al-though they failed to get what they were looking for, they dis-covered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) in a certain mixture finally led to the invention of gunpowder al-though its exact date of invention still remains unknown.
火藥的發明與中國古代發達的冶煉技術有密切的關係。在冶煉金屬的過程中，人們不斷總結經驗，逐漸接觸和熟悉了許多礦物的性能，積累了豐富的化學知識。從戰國時代起，就有人把冶金技術運用到煉製礦物藥方面，夢想能煉出長生不老的藥來，也有人想從礦物中煉出金銀來。雖然沒有煉出長生不老的丹藥或金銀，但是煉丹工匠們在煉丹的過程中發現，硝石、硫磺與含碳物質在一起加熱後會發生劇烈的化學反應。在一次次爆炸中，人們逐漸認識到硝石、硫磺、木炭按一定比例配製，將會製成會能爆炸的火藥。
Many historical materials indicate that gunpowder first appeared before the Tang was called “Black Gunpowder” because irs black in was firsf used to make firecrackers and fireworks. The military appliccrtions of gunpow-der began in the Tang Dynasty. The earliest weapon made from gunpowder was“Flying Fire”, tha. is, ng the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the military ap-plications of gunpowder became common and some other weapons like “fire can-non” ,“rocket”, “missile”and “fireball”were introduced.
火藥發明的具體年代已無從查考，但根據資料可以推斷，火藥發明的時間應在唐代以前。由於這種火藥的顏色是黑色的，所以叫做“黑火藥”。火藥發明後，先是被製成了爆竹和焰火。唐朝末年，火藥開始用於軍事。最早的火藥武器是“飛火”，即火箭。宋、元時期，軍事上廣泛應用火藥，出現了許多火藥武器，主要有火箭、火銃、突火槍、火炮等。Between 1225 crnd 1248, gunpowder and the related weapons spread to Eu-rope via Arabia. Since the major raw material of gunpowder niter is as white as snow, Arabians called gunpowder “Chinese Snow” and “Chinese Salt”. After gunpowder spread into Europe, it was not only used in weapons, and also for cut-ting through mountains, constructing roads, and digging rivers. The invention of gunpowder accelerated the coming of the Industrial Revolution.
公元1225—1248年之間，火藥和火藥武器經由阿拉伯傳到歐洲。因爲製造火藥的主要原料硝石潔白如雪，所以火藥被阿拉伯人稱爲“中國雪”和“中國鹽”。火．藥傳到歐洲後，被各國用來製造兵器，還在開山、修路、挖河等工程中廣泛使用，火藥的使用促進了工業革命的到來。
