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Dyanmite |
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Alfred Nobel was a swdish chemist, inventor, and philanthropist who was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1833. In 1864 Alfred's brother, along with four other people, were killed in a factory explosion involving nitroglycerin. This inspired Nobel to develope a safe way to handle nitroglycerin. Nobel realized this goal in 1867, with his invention of Dyamite. |
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Dyanmite is an example of a chemical explosive. An explosive is anything that, once ignited, burns extremely rapidly and produces a large amount of hot gas in the process. This hot gas expands extremely quickly and that is the intense pressure which cause the destruction which we associate with explosives. Dynamite is classified as a high explosive, meaning it is much more powerful than a low explosive such as gun powder. |
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This turned out to be a revolutionary invention. This allowed people to blast away large amounts of land for mining and tunneling. In the great industrial boom in America after the civil war through the end of the 19th century, dynamite was used very often in construction, and demolition also but it was used primarily for mining and tunnel construction. Before dynamite, miners used picks and shovels to tunnel through the Earth. This was an extremely inefficient process compared to the ease and efficiency dyanmite provided. With dynamite, you could stack lots of sticks of dynamite at the end of your tunel, ignite a string from a safe distance, and boom--there is a huge chunk out of the wall and you can simply load away all of the debris. |
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So what is this stuff and how does it work? Dyanmite is three parts Nitroglycerin, one part diatomaceous earth, and a small admixture of Sodium Carbonate. Nitroglycerin itself is an extremely dangerous substance. It is shock-sensitve, which means that a relitively small amount of physical shock can cause it to explode. In order to make dynamite safe from this shock-sensitive hazard, the Nitroglycerin is absorbed into the diatomaceous earth. This serves like a spunge, soaking up all of the Nitroglycerin so that it is not shock-sensitive. This Nitroglycerin soaked diatomaceous earth is wrapped in paper with a string attached with a small blasting cap to the top of it for detination.
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Nitroglycerin is made by reacting glycerol with a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acids. Nitroglycerin has the Chemical formula C3H5(ONO2)3. In the eplosive reation, The Carbon and Hydrogen combine with Oxygen, and the nitrogen is liberated. |
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Dyanmite was an invention that helped propel the American industrial Revolution. It was an amazingly safe new explosive that is insensitive to impact, friction, and shock. It was used often in construction, mining, tunneling, and deomlition. With the invention of newer, more advanced explosives, Dynamite is used very rarely these days. |
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