Where would a person in the eighteenth century find sulfur?

Question

A character in my novel (a teenager who goes back in time) combines sulfur, bat guano, and charcoal or honey to make an explosive. Gunpowder was made out of these in the civil war, for example. Where would my character find the sulfur?

Answer 1

The bat guano is where the salt petre would come from. During the Revolution, many wive would scrape the salt petre off the inside walls of outhouses to help make powder.

It is usually made with charcoal, salt petre and sulfur. Potassium nitrate is the correct word for salt petre. Making the stuff is very dangerous.

Answer 2

Sulfur is often found in deposits in the earth just like any other common mineral. It is often found in it's pure elemental form, but can also be found as a sulfate or a sulfide, or it is found among the ore where metals are being mined. The sulfur would at this time be obtained from a chemist, and assayer, a refiner, or miner. I don't know if the sulfur match would have been invented yet, but this would be a possibility also.
You mould be much better served to have the gunpowder come into someone's hands more subtly, as a gift or a chance find or even as payment of a gambling debt???. Less explaining. More action.
Good luck with your story.

Answer 3

Volcanoes and their surroundings. That's where ancient chinese legends say that gods got fireworks/gun powder from.