The deadly irony of gunpowder - Eric Rosado
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-deadly-irony-of-gunpowder-eric-rosado In the mid-ninth century, Chinese chemists, hard at work on an immortality ...
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Everybody loves fireworks -- the lights, the colors, and, of course, the big boom. But the history of fireworks isn't all hugs and celebrations. Long before epic fireworks displays, chemists in China invented the key ingredient that propels those bright lights into the sky. That invention was what we now call gunpowder. Our story begins back in ancient China in the mid-ninth century where early Chinese alchemists were trying to create a potion for immortality. Instead, what they created was a flammable powder that burned down many of their homes. They quickly realized that this black powder, which they called fire medicine, was precisely the opposite of something that would make you live forever. In these early days, the Chinese hadn't yet figured out how to make th...
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Everybody loves fireworks -- the lights, the colors, and, of course, the big boom. But the history of fireworks isn't all hugs and celebrations. Long before epic fireworks displays, chemists in China invented the key ingredient that propels those bright lights into the sky. That invention was what we now call gunpowder. Our story begins back in ancient China in the mid-ninth century where early Chinese alchemists were trying to create a potion for immortality. Instead, what they created was a flammable powder that burned down many of their homes. They quickly realized that this black powder, which they called fire medicine, was precisely the opposite of something that would make you live forever. In these early days, the Chinese hadn't yet figured out how to make th...
