when was potassium nitrate discovered ? by who ?

Question

potassium nitrate is also known as KNO3

Answer 1

gunpowder is one of the 4 great discoveries of the ancient chinese and potassium nitrate is a component of gunpowder so i would imagine that it was known of before 1000AD

Answer 2

this is all i could find so far:

Gunpowder was invented in China, probably during the 1000's. Gunpowder is composed of about 75 percent saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 15 percent powdered charcoal, and 10 percent sulphur.
The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and for signal flares. Gunpowder was also thought to have uses in medicine and in alchemy (the "science" of trying to change non-precious elements into gold). Soon after its invention, the Chinese used gunpowder for weapons (which they called fire arrows). Fire rockets were made by filling capped bamboo tubes with gunpowder and iron bits (shrapnel). These lethal weapons were attached to an arrow, lit, and shot from a bow. These were the first solid-fuel rockets. The Chinese used them to fight the invading Mongol hordes.

Answer 3

Potassium Nitrate also known as Saltpeter.

ON THE ORIGIN OF SALTPETER, NORTHERN CHILE COAST
ARIAS, Jaime, The Oregon and Chilean Exploration & Mining Co, El Alba 1, Parcela 18, Chicureo, Colina, Santiago Chile, [e-mail].
Chile’s nitrate origin has been debated since Darwin visited Tarapaca deposits in 1835; deposits cover 6,500 Km2 of arid Atacama Desert, between Pisagua and Taltal.

N2 forms 70% of Earth’s atmosphere and is fixed by algae and bacteria before plants use; oceanic algae fix it in unknown amounts. NO3-(aq.) and NH4+(aq.) are main species in the N-O-H system Eh-pH stability diagram (25°C, 1 bar) and most common species in water; significant N2 water-solubility favors N accumulation in algae; NH4+ forms by algae decay; thus, nitrogen cycles in and out of algae biomass.

Nitrate deposits result from decay of marine algae concentrations living above the 9 Km-deep Peru-Chile trench, due to N, K, P plant nutrients cycling by sea currents and seawater uplift in the trench’s reduced gravity field; collapse waves from the +20m. high sea-rise, form abundant sea-spray, taken inland by SW winds; these facts link algae’s N2 biological uptake and accumulation with NH4+-rich sea-spray from algae decay, which when risen over the 2,000m-high Coast Range into the desert’s high solar radiation atmosphere undergoes photochemical oxidation of NH4+ to NO3-.

Nitrates accumulate on land both through marine-fog precipitation, and sea-spray oxidation/desiccation and gravitational settling of airborne NaNO3, KNO3, NaCl, Na2SO4, I, in the hot/dry desert atmosphere. El Niño/La Niña extreme aridity/torrential rain cycles favor nitrates accumulation through both aridity and water solution/remobilization/transportation onto slopes and into basins; capillary solution movement forms layers of nitrates; pure nitrate forms rare veins.

Nitrate deposits, as irregular strata >1m. thick, average 8% NaNO3 (range 3% - >13% NaNO3; mining cut-off grade is 7%). Nitrate ore reserves are estimated at 6,800x106 tons (equivalent to 544x106 tons NaNO3); accumulation rate would be 32.1 ton NaNO3/year (or 88 miligrams/m2/day) if it started in the Miocene, 17m.y. ago (extreme aridity onset); exploitation rate today is 106 tons NaNO3/year; 200x106 tons may have been exploited since 1809. Nitrates are non-renewable, since accumulation rate is very slow; efficient use of nitrate fertilizers could help reduce nitrates exhaustion risk.

Studies of natural nitrate formation processes and accumulation rate measurements would help define more efficient resource uses.