Gunpowder was innovated by Chinese Daoist alchemists in various laboratories throughout ancient China. The invention was fairly new to the Han dynasty and Emperor Wu Di happily financed all research carried out by alchemists in the hope of creating a fantastic new invention. Some years later, what he had once hoped for is exactly what happened. After experimenting with several heating methods to transform sulphur and saltpetre in particular, a detailed book called ‘Book of the Kinship of the Three’ was written on the various experiments carried out by alchemists, by Wei Boyang who was an alchemist himself. This book is considered a primary source in history today. The minerals of sulphur and saltpetre were initially combined with charcoal to create an explosive known as gunpowder, or “huoyao” in Chinese, during the 8^th century in the Tang dynasty. Through experimentation with gunpowder filled tubes, the Chinese explored and studied the automatic power produced from the escaping gas and it was then that the invention of the world’s first rocket came into being. Before gunpowder’s powerful use as a weapon was discovered, the creation was used to treat skin diseases as well as to kill troublesome insects and soon gained the worthy title of a fumigant. However, it wasn’t long before scientists realised that gunpowder could be fuelled into weapons to generate bombs with the capacity to possibly kill a large proportion of the world’s population when plentiful, and began using gunpowder to their advantage in that way.