Credited to Slovakia. Some hold that gunpowder was used in mining elsewhere earlier, but according to the Slovak Mining Museum no written document supports this. The Banská Štiavnica use is attested by a mining office document of February 16, 1627. The town was then in the Kingdom of Hungary and now lies in Slovakia.
How it began
On February 8, 1627 gunpowder was used to blast rock in the Upper Bieber adit at Banská Štiavnica, a mining town then in the Kingdom of Hungary and now in central Slovakia. Accounts credit the blast to Kaspar Weindl, a miner from Schwaz in Tyrol. Ondrej Michna of the Slovak Mining Museum called it the first date on which gunpowder was used in the town for purposes other than military. A document issued by the mining office on February 16, 1627 describes the use. Before gunpowder was applied to mining and civil works, there were two ways to break up large rock: hard manual labor, or heating the rock with large fires and then quenching it rapidly.
How it spread
The record of 1627 is given as the earliest for the use of gunpowder in mines. The technique was introduced to Britain in 1638 by German miners, after which records become numerous. In 2017 the Slovak press marked 390 years since the first blast, citing the Slovak Mining Museum in Banská Štiavnica.
Who pushed back
Priority for the first blast is contested. Some opinions hold that gunpowder was used in mining in other countries first. According to Michna, no written document supports those claims, while the Banská Štiavnica blast is proved by the mining office document issued eight days after it. On that basis the museum presents the town as the first place in the world where gunpowder was used in mining.
What changed first
The museum describes the change as an advance that raised the efficiency of mining work by several hundred percent. The new practice also required infrastructure. A central powder store, the Pracháreň, was built at Banská Štiavnica to hold the gunpowder.
