How will you separate the components of gunpowder?

Explanation

Gunpowder is a mixture of nitre (potassium nitrate), sulphur and powdered charcoal. The mixture is thoroughly shaken with water when nitre goes into solution leaving behind sulphur and charcoal undissolved. The solution is filtered out. The filtrate contains aqueous solution of nitre. On slow evaporation, the filtrate gives crystals of nitre. Undissolved residue containing sulphur and charcoal is treated with carbon disulphide solution.Sulphur dissolves in the solution but charcoal does not. On filtration, charcoal is obtained as a residue. The filtrate, which contains sulphur, on evaporation gives sulphur as the residue.