MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 02854cam 2200349Ia 4500
001 9925181387901661
005 20150423154735.0
008 120613s2013 enka b 001 0 eng d
010 $a 2013370223
020 $a9780199695751
020 $a019969575X
035 $a(OCoLC)795759762
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn795759762
040 $aBTCTA$beng$cBTCTA$dUKMGB$dCDX$dYDXCP$dYNK$dNLE$dOCLCO$dTYC$dHUV$dTXI$dBWX$dDLC$dVP@$dKEC$dZLM$dXII$dOCLCF$dP4I$dOCLCQ
050 4 $aTP238$b.C74 2013
082 04 $a549.732$223
100 1 $aCressy, David.
245 10 $aSaltpeter :$bthe mother of gunpowder /$cDavid Cressy.
250 $a1st ed.
260 $aOxford :$bOxford University Press,$c2013.
300 $axii, 237 pages :$billustrations ;$c23 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 213-230) and index.
505 0 $aMysterious saltpeter -- The gunpowder kingship of Henry VIII -- The Elizabethan quest for infinite security -- Saltpeter for a peaceable kingdom -- The inestimable treasure of Charles I -- Saltpeter revolution -- Saltpeter for a global power -- The New World and the Ancien Re gime.
520 $a"This is the story of saltpeter, the vital but mysterious substance craved by governments from the Tudors to the Victorians as an 'inestimable treasure.' National security depended on control of this organic material - that had both mystical and mineral properties. Derived from soil enriched with dung and urine, it provided the heart or 'mother' of gunpowder, without which no musket or cannon could be fired. Its acquisition involved alchemical knowledge, exotic technology, intrusions into people's lives, and eventual dominance of the world's oceans. The quest for saltpeter caused widespread 'vexation' in Tudor and Stuart England, as crown agents dug in homes and barns and even churches. Governments hungry for it purchased supplies from overseas merchants, transferred skills from foreign experts, and extended patronage to ingenious schemers, while the hated 'saltpetermen' intruded on private ground. Eventually, huge saltpeter imports from India relieved this social pressure, and by the eighteenth century positioned Britain as a global imperial power; the governments of revolutionary America and ancien regime France, on the other hand, were forced to find alternative sources of this treasured substance. In the end, it was only with the development of chemical explosives in the late Victorian period that dependency on saltpeter finally declined."--Publisher's description.
650 0 $aSaltpeter$xHistory.
650 0 $aGunpowder$xHistory.
650 0 $aGunpowder industry$xHistory.
947 $cBOOK$fBOOK-SETC-TEC$g29.95$hCIRCSTACKS$iaa$lNULS$o20150113$q1
980 $a99961322774