The History of Dynamite
Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, a high explosive consisting of sodium carbonate and three parts nitroglycerin to one part diatomaceous earth. In 1866 he obtained patents in England and in 1867 in Sweden. Nobel had intended to market dynamite as an alternative to gunpowder for large-scale construction work such as roads and tunnel building. But it also saw use in the military and by revolutionaries as a weapon.
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Origins
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Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
The key ingredient of dynamite, nitroglycerin, was discovered by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847. Sobrero stumbled upon nitroglycerin while attempting to create new medicine. He injured himself when he heated in a test tube the syrupy glycerin with nitric acid and sulfuric acid, making an oil that, once separated from the acids, caused an explosion.
Nobel's Invention
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Dynamite is used to excavate this quarry.
Nobel sought to use the nitroglycerin as a blasting agent for explosives and developed a means to detonate it safely. He eventually found that mercury fulminate, ignited with a fuse or spark, could safely detonate the nitro and other components that made up the explosive.
Accidents Happen
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Alfred Nobel's dynamite factory.
Dynamite was extremely volatile and prone to decomposition and unplanned explosions. Shipping was dangerous due to leaking and movement. Users often managed to blow themselves up along with anybody nearby and the building they happen to be in. A shipment en route to California blew up in Panama, killing 60 and causing a half-million dollars in damage. Nobel's own dynamite factory in Hamburg, Germany, blew up leaving nothing but a shattered foundation. Using diatomaceous earth or sawdust as an absorbent reduced its sensitivity. Later, freezing dynamite made it safe for transportation; it was then thawed for use.
Commercial Uses
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Dynamite shortened the construction schedule of the Panama Canal.
As Nobel intended, dynamite was a boon to the construction industry, particularly in the United States during its expansion period. Dynamite bored a 5-mile-long hole in Hoosac Mountain, Massachusetts, to provide a train route. Seven million pounds were used in 1890 to build the New Croton Reservoir System in New York. New York's subway construction project in 1900 used 10 million pounds. And 61 million pounds were used to build the Panama Canal.
Military Applications
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The U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command used dynamite at Cheyenne Mountain.
In the 1880s the U.S. military experimented with dynamite guns in which dynamite was fired at the enemy from guns. However, the concussion from the blast of the gun prematurely detonated the dynamite. Other explosive applications by this time had been developed, and the use of dynamite was minimized.
Weapon of the People
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About 100 pounds of dynamite were used to kill dozens on Wall Street in 1920.
Dynamite became the weapon of choice for anarchists, Bolsheviks, terrorists and revolutionaries who saw the explosive as a means to level the playing field against powerful governments. In 1881 Russian revolutionaries assassinated Czar Alexander II with dynamite. The Irish Republican Army group Sinn Féin considered dynamite its best weapon against the British Army.
Today
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A dynamite blast killed seven police officers at the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886.
By the early 1960s, a cheaper and safer explosive was developed using ammonium nitrate mixed at the site with 6 percent fuel oil. This was the same type of explosive used by Timothy McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. In the 1950s, 95 percent of the explosives in the United States were dynamite. Today, it's less than 2 percent.
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- Photo Credit City of Chicago, City of New York, U.S. Army
