The invention of dynamite was an important step towards the creation of a relatively safe explosive material of high power, designed for mining and construction works. But who exactly invented dynamite, and what is the essence of this invention?
Why was dynamite needed?
With the development of civilization and transport infrastructure, a need arose for a radical change in the natural topography: laying tunnels, exploding mountain ranges, and draining lakes. It quickly became clear that the power of an ordinary powder explosion was not enough, so chemists began to look for more advanced explosives. One of such substances was nitroglycerin - an explosive liquid, the explosion power of which is ten times the power of gunpowder. Unfortunately, its production, storage and transportation were very dangerous, since nitroglycerin is very sensitive to temperature, accidental sparks and shocks.
Dynamite inventor Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a chemical engineer who worked in his father’s nitroglycerin factory. Nobel conducted many experiments with explosives, trying to invent a safe way to create it, since accidental explosions in such factories were not uncommon. One of these incidents killed Alfred's younger brother, Emil. In the end, Nobel managed to solve the safety problem of nitroglycerin production, but the task of transportation and storage was still relevant.
As in the case of many well-known inventions, this problem was solved purely by accident: one of the bottles with nitroglycerin crashed during transportation, but since the bottles were transported in boxes with porous soil, there was no explosion. Nobel conducted experiments and found out that the soil impregnated with explosive liquid has significant resistance to external influences, while at the same time maintaining the power of the explosion. In 1867, Alfred Nobel patented dynamite - nitroglycerin, mixed with a neutral absorbent. Cardboard tubes were used as packaging.
One of Nobel’s teachers, the Russian chemist Nikolai Zinin, together with the military engineer Petrushevsky, at about the same time invented his own version of dynamite, in which nitroglycerin was mixed with magnesium oxide.
