When was dynamite discovered

In the s, Alfred Nobel, a Swede, invented dynamite and the blasting cap required to make it explode. He licensed it in the United States and the industrial revolution began. With dynamite, mines could be dug deeper and more quickly, and uneconomical deposits thus became profitable. The extracted tonnage of copper, coal and iron ore increased a hundred fold. New industries began; some seem so basic today that is difficult to imagine that they were not always there.

Quarrying delivered materials such as limestone, cement and concrete which became common building products, replacing bricks and cobblestones. He had a long interest in the use of explosives, the encyclopedia writes, influenced by the family business selling explosive mines and other equipment.

In the early s, having completed his education, he began experimenting with explosives. The solution he devised was a small wooden detonator with a black powder charge that was placed in a metal container full of nitroglycerin. When it was lit and exploded, the liquid nitroglycerin would also explode. A few years later, in , he invented the blasting cap, which replaced the wooden detonator. This early period of experimentation cost Nobel his factory, which blew up, and the deaths of a number of workmen as well as his brother, Emil.

Nitroglycerine is an explosive liquid which was first made by Ascanio Sobrero in by treating glycerol with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid. The reaction which follows is highly exothermic, i. Liquid nitroglycerine is colorless if pure. It is soluble in alcohols but insoluble in water.