[Baseball_Fan]

Did anyone see the PBS show on explosives? It was very interesting.

I did not know that Nobel was the man who invented nitroglycerin and dynamite, and that his brother died in one of their labs when the nitroglycerin exploded. I always thought of Nobel as in the Nobel Peace Prize, not a man who made his money in warfare. They also had an interesting part on Oppenheimer and the making of the Nuclear Bomb, and how scientists at the time were not certain the nuclear explosion would be contained. Some thought a nuclear explosion would start a chain reaction in the atmosphere, and kill us all.

And there was an old man who showed that explosives can come from anything. He lit a candle, and placed a tall round cylinder around the candle. He then dropped in some flour in the top of the cylinder. And the flour exploded. I could not believe my eyes.

 

[pantone159]

I always thought of Nobel as in the Nobel Peace Prize, not a man who made his money in warfare.

That is exactly why he made up the Prizes, just so you would remember him that way.

[constant thinker]

I didn't think his intention was for warfare? I though he intended it to be used in peaceful applications, like mining, clear way for railroads, etc.

[Baseball_Fan]

I didn't think his intention was for warfare? I though he intended it to be used in peaceful applications, like mining, clear way for railroads, etc.

The PBS show made it look like Nobel knew exactly what his inventions would be used for. His company made more money by manufacturing wepons than chemicals for peaceful purposes. I think the quote Nobel gave was "I make these wepons so there will never be war".

It was a very interesting hour long program. If you can Tivo it, it's worth watching because they give a history of gunpowder and how it was invented by accident.

[hmx9123]

The show is called "Kaboom".  It's great.  Nobel actually invented dynamite, not nitroglycerin.  Nitroglycerin was invented by Antonio Sobrero a few years before.  Sobrero's original sample of NG is still kept today in a fridge someplace in Italy.  I heard a few years back they tested it to see if it's still explosive and indeed, it is.  Kind of neat.  Sort of like Napoleon's black powder.  Napoleon's army had some of the best black powder in the world.  The French hoarded it, and they still have several barrels of it even today stored away somewhere, or at least that's how the legent goes.