Sometimes, objects in our collection are a little mysterious. They can be mysterious because we can’t say who made them, or what material they are made of, or because we may not know who used them or how they were used. Our staff do the best they can to research the objects in our collection, but many of them remain to be researched. This brings us to this week’s topic: gunpowder thermometers.
70.9 Gunpowder Thermometer
We recently received a question about gunpowder thermometers, so we started to dig into what we knew about them. The answer was: surprisingly little. We have a gunpowder thermometer in our collection, and some historical references to measurements of temperature in gunpowder storage areas, but we have very little information beyond that.
Why were people measuring temperature in gunpowder storage areas? People who store gunpowder worry about two things: that it could explode, or that it could degrade. Gunpowder changes characteristics depending on humidity and temperature. If gunpowder absorbs water or becomes wet, it can be prevented from combusting completely. Many documents outline the ideal temperature at which black powder and smokeless powder should be stored, and a thermometer would have helped gauge when condensation would occur. Might our gunpowder thermometer have been a tool for people to monitor the temperature in which gunpowder was stored?
Quite likely- but that wasn’t the only reason for manufacturers of gunpowder to have thermometers. Gunpowder manufacturers could, and did, use heat to dry gunpowder. Could our gunpowder thermometer have been used to ensure proper temperatures (hopefully lower than the temperature gunpowder combusts at) for drying gunpowder? No, but it is possible.
The simple answer is that we don’t know exactly what this gunpowder thermometer was used for. Some objects require many hours of research to find out why they were made and what they were used for, so they remain a mystery to the busy staff of many museums.
So, reader, if you know something about gunpowder thermometers, please share your knowledge with us, and help us tell a more interesting story about our gunpowder thermometer!
Keith Minsinger is the Registrar and Databases Manager at Hagley.