this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not quite. Guano was historically a source of saltpetre...

[–] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For real?!

TIL! Thanks for explaining.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

For real?!

Yup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano

Though its main use was as fertilizer, Guano was also sought for the production of gunpowder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate#From_caves

Major natural sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the accumulations of bat guano in caves. Extraction is accomplished by immersing the guano in water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water.