Dynamite

See also: Dynamite (homonymy)

The dynamite is a Explosif, manufactured containing Nitroglycérine.

Etymology

The dynamite term comes from the Greek δυναμις ( dunamis ), which means power, capacity. The suffix Swedish - it was then added.

History

The Nitroglycérine manufactured and was initially sold by the company of Alfred Nobel in his liquid form, but it was so unstable (and dangerous) that it was quickly prohibited in Europe.

Alfred Nobel solved the problem by mixing it with Kieselguhr S (fossil powder of Diatomée S), then by grinding it in the form of wrapped paper sticks, thus it created dynamite in 1866 and deposited a Brevet in 1867.

The liquid of nitroglycerin can also be mixed with other neutral components, like the Silice, or with active compounds (Soufre, Nitrate of sodium, Cellulose, etc).

The exploitation of sound Brevet brought back a considerable fortune to him, which was reserved for the Nobel Prize later. It controlled its rights strictly, and succeeded in putting forward them vis-a-vis merchants states-uniens who tried to plagiarize his invention by using a slightly different formula.

The stick of dynamite

For people not using these products a stick of dynamite has following dimensions classically: 25 cm length on 3 cm in diameter, but the great majority of dynamite is used in the form of cartridges of diameter higher than 5 cm and a weight higher than 1 KG.

Dynamite is of use much less risky than the Nitroglycérine or even as the Gunpowder. It is less sensitive to the shocks, and a stick placed in a Feu will burn (theoretically) without exploding. In fact, it requires a detonator to be used.

With time (or with an higher temperature with 32 degrees), the sticks of dynamite ooze of the Nitroglycérine liquid, which can make them dangerous and presents an security issue on the building sites. This is why it is used nowadays.

Uses

The principal fields of application of dynamite were the Construction, the mining Exploitation and the Démolition. During the Industrialization, there was an important need for powerful explosives for mining industry or the construction of tunnels. However, of new explosives and novel methods replaced dynamite little by little. That made of the decades that it was not marketed any more.

Dynamite was also used in armed conflicts.

It happened that criminals interested by the opening of safes deliberately extracted from the Nitroglycérine of sticks of dynamite by making them boil.

The speleologists a long time used dynamite to practice the removal of obstructions from the conduits and not-penetrable ventilation holes by the Man. Gradually, the practice was directed towards more interesting explosives from a point of view power ratio/volume.

See too

Simple: Dynamite

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