Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

saltpetre

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: saltpetre
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Transparent, colourless, or white powder or crystals of potassium nitrate (KNO3), found native in deposits. It is a strong oxidizing agent (see oxidation-reduction), used in fireworks, explosives, matches, fertilizers, glassmaking, steel tempering, and food curing; as a reagent; and as an oxidizer in solid rocket propellants. The term is also used for sodium nitrate (Chile saltpetre) and calcium nitrate (lime saltpetre), both of which are used in the nitric acid industry and as fertilizers, and for ammonium nitrate (Norway saltpetre), a high explosive and fertilizer.

For more information on saltpetre, visit Britannica.com.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Food and Nutrition: saltpetre
Top
Home > Library > Food & Cooking > Food and Nutrition

Bengal saltpetre

Potassium nitrate.

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food and Nutrition. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved.  Read more