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In 1750, Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia made a commercial blasting cap consisting of a paper tube full of black powder, with wires leading in both sides and wadding sealing up the ends. The two wires came close but did not touch, so a large electric spark discharge between the two wires would fire the cap.
Detonation cord will initiate most commercial high explosives (dynamite, gelignite, sensitised gels, etc.) but will not initiate less sensitive blasting agents like ANFO on its own. 25 to 50 grain/foot (5.3 to 10.6 g/m) detonation cord has approximately the same initiating power as a #8 blasting cap in every 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) along its ...
Binary explosives are cap-sensitive (detonatable with a standard #8 blasting cap) two-part explosives mixtures, shipped separately and combined at the use site. Many of these mixtures are based on Ammonium nitrate as an oxidizer plus a volatile fuel, but unlike ANFO (ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive) these binaries can be detonated by ...
The most common commercial wire size is 0.038 mm (1.5 mils) in diameter and 1 mm (40 mils) in length, but lengths ranging from 0.25 mm to 2.5 mm (10 mils to 100 mils) can be encountered. From the available explosives, only PETN at low densities can be initiated by sufficiently low shock to make its use practical in commercial systems as a part ...
Common commercial grade of dynamite is 40% nitroglycerin in half-pound sticks 8 x 1.25 inches. Dynamite in normal working condition will burn in a fire and will detonate only if subjected to shock (blasting cap). However, dynamite that is old or stored under extreme conditions and has "sweated" nitroglycerine is unstable.
The commercial and military version of a burning fuse referred to as safety fuse (invented by William Bickford) is a textile tube filled with combustible material and wrapped to prevent external exposure of the burning core. Safety fuses are used to initiate the detonation of explosives through the use of a blasting cap.
In 1863 Nobel performed his first successful detonation of pure nitroglycerin, using a blasting cap made of a copper percussion cap and mercury fulminate. In 1864, Alfred Nobel filed patents for both the blasting cap and his method of synthesizing nitroglycerin, using sulfuric acid, nitric acid and glycerin.
The largest commercial application of explosives is mining. Whether the mine is on the surface or is buried underground, the detonation or deflagration of either a high or low explosive in a confined space can be used to liberate a fairly specific sub-volume of a brittle material (rock) in a much larger volume of the same or similar material.