Researched
Dynamite (Nobel)
Alfred Nobel made nitroglycerin safe enough to transport and use, giving mining, tunnelling and canal building a far stronger blasting agent than gunpowder.
Open in the interactive tree →Nitroglycerin, first made by Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, was powerful but too unstable to handle. Nobel patented dynamite in 1867, a stabilised form that, together with his blasting cap, made large-scale rock blasting practical, for example in the Gotthard rail tunnel (1872-1882). His fortune later funded the Nobel Prizes.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Suez & Panama Canals1869-1914Panama's Culebra Cut was dug with dynamite blasting on a huge scale