Saltpeter

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Saltpeter or saltpetre often refers to:

  • Potassium nitrate (KNO3), the critical oxidizing component of gunpowder, and a food preservative
    • niter, the mineral form of potassium nitrate

It may also refer to:

  • Sodium nitrate ("Peru saltpeter" or "Chile saltpeter"), a component of fertilizers, explosives and solid rocket propellants; also a food preservative
    • Nitratine, the mineral form of sodium nitrate
  • Calcium nitrate ("Norway salpeter", "Norges salpeter" or "nitrate of lime"), a compound produced in Norway by the Birkeland–Eyde process during early 20th century
  • Magnesium nitrate, a hygroscopic salt with the formula Mg(NO3)2
  • The Saltpeter War or War of the Pacific (1879–84), between Chile, Peru and Bolivia
  • A saltpetreman, a person who dug saltpeter up, found it or made it for a living
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