As regards KNO3, Wikipedia kindl;y advises that In England, the privilege of manufacturing explosives had been in the hands of the family of John Evelyn, the celebrated diarist, as a crown monopoly since before 1588.

KNO3 is potassium nitrate, made from bat dunk, bird guano, old sewage, or what have you until the process was industrialized by Haber.

I think Rapaire meant C12H22O11 -- table sugar. Or maybe citric acid: C6H8O7. The later melts at 153 °C, the former at 186°C. He might have meant ordinary cellulose (C6H10O5) or perhaps even dronabinol ( C21H30O2).

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