You can see it’s not very dangerous in this form. This would have been the first experience with something that could potentially make an explosive device. Compressing the gunpowder inside a container and then lighting it is what makes the explosion. That was learned through trial and error. No doubt people killed themselves messing around with gunpowder, and that is why there are plenty of written rules about it now.
All of this was learned long before TNT was purposefully invented.
Here’s a video of gunpowder burning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcT0c_ZzKUM
You can see it’s not very dangerous in this form. This would have been the first experience with something that could potentially make an explosive device. Compressing the gunpowder inside a container and then lighting it is what makes the explosion. That was learned through trial and error. No doubt people killed themselves messing around with gunpowder, and that is why there are plenty of written rules about it now.
All of this was learned long before TNT was purposefully invented.