Industry

Gunpowder
All gunpowder production in the Owl Republic are state owned and controlled. Saltpeter is produced both by the importation of crude, unrefined saltpeter and local farms. Each farmstead is required to either build a saltpeter barn on their own land (state owned farms usually have their own barns and sometimes refine their own saltpeter from the resulting decomposed material), or have their manure to be centrally collected by the local government, and placed in a public niter bed. Though some in the government have long pushed for the freeing up of farmer's burden of manure collection, which hampers the yield by taking away precious fertilizers, imported sources of niter and fertilizers produced from it have made the argument die down considerably. And farmers are still subsidized or awarded tax exemptions for their cooperation.
The resulting saltpeter is of good quality, when combined with selectively sourced charcoal and distilled, disinfected water, and sulfur produces some of the best powder in the world. The raw materials are shipped to the various powder mills in the country, which all by now have standardized, variable speed water mills, resulting in consistent pressing and corning of powder. The introduction of steam engines also increased production somewhat by being able to pump water from elsewhere during drier seasons or increasing the speed of the wheels beyond their normal speed. Though like many state owned factories, the recent introduction of expansion engines has made the Department of Economics to consider retrofitting all production facilities with direct steam driven mills or at least supplement them with one. But the biggest obstacle is the high production of gun powder, which the Republic already has too much of. Due to this reason, the Owl Republic is also one of the biggest exporters of gun powder, mostly slower burning powder for blasting and some high quality hunting powder with powder intended for war reserved for close partners and allies.

The country also produced the Grade XI powder, which incorporated chuubanite in its pulverizing and glazing process. Coal chuubanite is added during the pulverization. And Vitubim from chuubanite in the country, produced from burning, then condensing the steam resulting from it, are added to a secret, proprietary mix of chemicals, which results in an alternate glazing material from graphite. The coating is relatively waterproof and provides extra heat and energy when detonated, which allowed the operation of firearms in the rain (chance for hang fire is considerably reduced). The powder also produces less smoke, almost half of normal, high quality powder. And despite eschewing graphite as the glazing material, is still easy to pour. Scholars have long debated what exactly causes the Grade XI to detonate when it doesn't come into contact with any activator substance. The current most popular thesis is that the compound created by the coating when it is ignited triggers the vitubium compound, which in turn also induces the chuubanite within to explode beyond the normal powder ingredient within.
The Grade XI is most popular aboard as a hunting and sporting priming powder, which are corned more finely than normal priming powder. The powder produces less smoke and flash when denoted, and the more violent reaction also ignites the charge faster, allowing the prey less time to escape when the trigger was pulled. The powder is of course best known within the country as an powder reserved for the elite forces. The Grade XI destined to the arsenals are milled to a smaller grain than usual, because the chuubanite coal introduced bonds more weakly than normal powder, despite the coating also acting as a protector. As such, Grade XI is only used in small arms, which the rangers and elite light infantry units are able to exploit its advantage the most. The smoke produced by the powder makes shots made from a treeline virtually invisible beyond 70 yards, and the slightly higher velocity also gives the bullet better ballistics. The powder also produces a brilliant blue and amber colored flame when ignited. Although the biggest downside to the powder is the fouling that comes with repeated use.
The fouling is lightly hydrophobic, unlike normal fouling, which make it harder to clean in field conditions. The problem is especially present in rifles, which sometimes outright prevent the ball to be loaded as the grooves become filled with a compound containing spent chuubanite or impure chuubanite that was left in during manufacturing, making the fouling harder. The same problem is also present in shooters that use the Grade XI in sporting or hunting but these uses usually do not fire for long enough during each use for the fouling to become a problem. But the Grade XI also faces competition, as a solid priming compound was invented in 1118. The new type of primer are contained in their stand alone caps instead of being loose powder. Although the Grade XI will most likely see to be displaced by these caps in all fields, as a result of massive efforts from the Military to modify the service rifles into cap fired guns, Grade XI is still expected to remain as a situational but highly effective powder, and the branding effect still makes it one of the go to powder for many hunters both foreign and domestic to use it before cap fired guns have replaced most firearms in the world.