A few weeks ago I bought some Potassium Nitrate (also known as saltpetre) from Amazon. I needed it because I am going to try my hand at curing my own bacon and saltpetre is used as a preservative in this process.
To anyone who might not know, saltpetre is also one of the three ingredients in the traditional gunpowder recipe. I was surprised to be able to buy it, but happy that I could get hold of this food grade material.
Yesterday I got one of Amazon’s frequent “we thought you might like” emails. The contents of these are based on what you’ve purchased previously. So imagine my surprise when I saw that the suggestions included:
- Potassium Nitrate 99.9% pure in 1kg bag
- Himalayan Pink Salt
That Himalayan thing was a red herring. But when I clicked on the Potassium Nitrate link out of interest (my 500g pack cost more), I discovered that it wasn’t food grade – and then I saw at the bottom of the page the following related items:
- Pure Sulphur Brimstone Powder Incense 500g High Grade
- Commercial Grade Willow Charcoal Powder 400g
- Firework Safety Fuse for Pyrotechnics – 4 meters
- Magnesium Ribbon 99.9% 25g
- Aluminium Powder 99.7% Purity
- Potassium Chlorate High Purity/Top Grade Pyrotechnic
- Pyro Rocket Tubes (various)
In fact, 10 pages of items specifically for making fireworks and… well, things that go BANG! And the joyful proclamation that the “following items are frequently bought together”.
I remember from my school days that very fine sulphur and Willow charcoal are key items for making fast-burning gunpowder (along with saltpetre). Other oxidising agents make it burn faster, and magnesium makes it burn brighter. Guess what the “frequently bought” collections included!
And probably the funniest thing is that the email starts with:
Are you looking for something in our Herbs, Spices & Seasonings store? If so, you might be interested in these items.
The Potassium Nitrate it links to is NOT identified as food grade, doesn’t actually fall under any of the headings “herbs, spices, or seasonings” even if it was food grade, and is being sold by a garden store.
They’ll be selling weapons grade Plutonium in the toys section next.