How early can gunpowder be discovered by Europe?

[Dunning Kruger]

I seem to recall that one of the primary distinctions between the development of the canon in the 14th century and prior uses of gunpowder is recognizing its value as a propellant for other objects. Using gunpowder as a mine is far different than using it to propel a cannon ball against walls. And, as others have said, probably requires some more advanced knowledge of metallurgy, although that might have a chicken/egg component to it. Regardless, even if you have gunpowder, it requires a certain "aha!" moment to move into the realm of canons.

 

[steve_wilson]

Actually, gunpowder is one of those twitchy things that seems easy in hindsight, but very difficult to come up with practical uses for at the time.

Essentially, any culture which as significant access to sulfur, charcoal and nitrates can stumble across gunpowder. But there are some caveats there. Charcoal is universally available. But Sulfur is not, so you need a culture either located close by, or which has pre-existing trade networks available for moving quantities of sulfur

Sulphur was well known to western alchemists, and was in fact a property as well as a substance, along with salt and mercury.

 

[DValdron]

Sulphur was well known to western alchemists, and was in fact a property as well as a substance, along with salt and mercury.

It's very distinctive. But it's like Tin, you don't necessarily have deposits lying around all over the place. You tend to have large, isolated localized deposits, so you need a trade/transportation network to move it around. Or you have to hope that your potential gunpowder creators just happen to be living next to a convenient deposit.

 

[steve_wilson]

It's very distinctive. But it's like Tin, you don't necessarily have deposits lying around all over the place. You tend to have large, isolated localized deposits, so you need a trade/transportation network to move it around. Or you have to hope that your potential gunpowder creators just happen to be living next to a convenient deposit.

Such a network clearly existed or sulphur wouldn't have become such a universal part of western alchemy (don't know about Chinese or Indian). See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid#History