I feel that I would like to set things straight about Potassium Chlorate and other Oxygen givers such as Sodium Chlorate that seem to have been much maligned by the Joy Police health and safety brigade. This was one of the main constituents of strike anywhere matches (the ones with the bright red tops) now sadly on this side of the pond they are now extremely hard to obtain now things have gone to the safety match only. Sodium Chlorate on its own can not spontaneously burst in to flames or explode it must have a flammable substance added to it, in the browning solutions it is there to add more Oxygen to enable the acidic Ferric Chloride to work a little faster. A more modern mixture is to use a mixture of 1:1:1 Hydrogen peroxide (another joy police victim now available in low concentrations) to add the oxygen water and Ferric Chloride. For some specialized Black Powder mixes it is used as a substitute for Potassium Nitrate. To explain the myth about corrosive primers it was not the Potassium Chlorate or the Sulphur that did the real damage it was the Mercury Fulminate in the mixture. The days are now gone that with the use of household chemicals the fascination of home chemistry has ended for the younger generations of today, I had a fabulous time making all those things that the Chemistry teacher said you should rather not especially that fun stuff NI3 for instance.
