Quote Originally Posted by Pleater View Post
I know how to make gunpowder - which makes me all the more perplexed about how the conspirators obtained the ingredients - OK the saltpeter coud be got, charcoal, probably no problem - but the Sulphur?

If I remember correctly, when on the run from the authorities their stock of gunpowder for their pistols got wet in the rain so when they found shelter and lit a fire they spread it out on the hearth to dry. The resulting explosion severely injured several and burnt everyone in the room.

That level of expertise in handling gunpowder does make me suspect that they did not have an NVQ in the safe storage of explosives.

(NVQ - national vocational qualification - low grade certificate, I think there is one which includes using a stapler)

I am quite willing to believe that there were people who would sit around a good fire, drinking and considering how to blow up the King and Parliament, and the better the ale the more fanciful the plan, but - well - maybe I am just getting cynical in my old age.....

Anne the Pleater :ootd:
I'm not an authority on England in that period, but I rather suspect that sulfur was commonly used as a fumigant, worming medicine, and gun powder ingredient then just as it was in later centuries; I therefore don't see how the Crown could have had a monopoly on black powder. However, here in Canada some Al Q conspirators were sold several tons of inert powder instead of the ammonium nitrate they thought they were purchasing so perhaps the secret service of the day did that to Guy- but whatever, he ended up taking the jump.