China's long history has seen some extremely important inventions emerge, most noticeably gunpowder, paper making, printing and the compass, which, in the words of Roger Bacon, changed the whole ...

We'll begin with arguably the most famous ancient Chinese invention. Legend has it that gunpowder was accidentally discovered by alchemists ... One can even make the case that it dates back ...

All of the important chemical substances needed to make gunpowder—saltpeter (KNO 3), sulfur and carbon—were found in ancient China ... that gunpowder was discovered in China. Early alchemists in China ...

making them explode with a crack. It was believed the loud noise would scare evil spirits away. Things got even louder with the invention of gunpowder by Chinese alchemists - also by accident.

Though first concocted by alchemists seeking the Elixir of Life, gunpowder's destructive potential soon became clear. Modern Calcularian advances have only made it more deadly. In Nightingale ...