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Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and stabilizers. [1] It was invented by the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germany, and was patented in 1867. It rapidly gained wide-scale use as a more robust alternative to the traditional black powder explosives. It ...
The term black powder was coined in the late 19th century, primarily in the United States, to distinguish prior gunpowder formulations from the new smokeless powders and semi-smokeless powders. Semi-smokeless powders featured bulk volume properties that approximated black powder, but had significantly reduced amounts of smoke and combustion ...
This is a compilation of published detonation velocities for various high explosive compounds. Detonation velocity is the speed with which the detonation shock wave travels through the explosive.
On 9 March 1911, the village of Pleasant Prairie and neighbouring town of Bristol, 4 miles (6.4 km) away, were levelled by the explosion of five magazines holding 300 tons of dynamite, 105,000 kegs of black blasting powder, and five rail wagons filled with dynamite housed at a 190-acre (77-hectare) DuPont blasting powder plant. A crater 100 ft ...
Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD.. Gunpowder is the first explosive to have been developed. Popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China, it was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) while the earliest recorded chemical formula for gunpowder dates to the Song dynasty (11th century).
The first useful explosive stronger than black powder was nitroglycerin, developed in 1847. Since nitroglycerin is a liquid and highly unstable, it was replaced by nitrocellulose , trinitrotoluene ( TNT ) in 1863, smokeless powder , dynamite in 1867 and gelignite (the latter two being sophisticated stabilized preparations of nitroglycerin ...
Atlas Powder Company and Hercules competed with DuPont in the manufacture of dynamite and black powder. [5] It purchased Giant Powder Company in 1915, which continued to operate a production facility at Point Pinole until 1960. [3] By 1919, Atlas Powder Company became a military supplier. [6]
A black match is a type of fuse consisting of cotton string coated with a dried slurry of black powder and glue. This acts as a simple pass-fire, and was used to fire ancient cannons. They are used today in fireworks construction. A quick match or piped match is a type of black powder fuse that burns very quickly, some hundreds of feet per ...