Why GURPS gets TL 5 wrong, like every single other RPG

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

"Explosives" is one thing, but would anyone have experimented with making them if they hadn't come up with black powder first? I can't really see someone being inspired by the industrial use of flour dust explosions or the like. And black powder seems to depend on sulfur. We're not trying to stop an end state but a historical path.

Bill Stoddard

Once an alchemist had strong concentrated acids he could discover high explosives by accident..

The fulminates of mercury come of course from messing around with mercury and alchemists seemed unable to resist that.