Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth (AmE: kieselgur; BrE: kieselguhr), or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued. Dynamite was invented by the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Krümmel (Geesthacht, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), and patented in 1867. Its name is derived from Greek roots δύναμις dýnamis that literally mean "connected with power."
Dynamite is usually sold in the form of cylinders about 8 in (20 cm) long and about 1.25 in (3.2 cm) in diameter, with a weight of about 0.5 lb troy (0.186 kg) . Other sizes also exist. The maximum shelf life of nitroglycerin-based dynamite is recommended as one year from the date of manufacture under good storage conditions.
Dynamite is a high explosive, which means its power comes from detonation rather than deflagration.
Another form of dynamite consists of nitroglycerin dissolved in nitrocellulose and a small amount of ketone. This form of dynamite is similar to cordite, and is much safer than the simple mix of nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth. Military dynamite achieves greater stability by avoiding the use of nitroglycerin and uses much more stable chemicals. Public knowledge of dynamite led to metaphoric uses, such as saying that a particular issue "is political dynamite" (for example at this link).
Read more about Dynamite: Uses, History, Manufacture, Difference From TNT
Famous quotes containing the word dynamite:
“You are all fundamentalists with a top dressing of science. That is why you are the stupidest of conservatives and reactionists in politics and the most bigoted of obstructionists in science itself. When it comes to getting a move on you are all of the same opinion: stop it, flog it, hang it, dynamite it, stamp it out.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“In preparing the soil for planting, you will need several tools. Dynamite would be a beautiful thing to use, but it would have a tendency to get the dirt into the front-hall and track up the stairs.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite beneath the moralist position, and we are still living in the echo of that tremendous crash. But already, somewhere or other, the sappers are at work and fresh dynamite is being tamped in place to blow Marx at the moon. Then Marx, or somebody like him, will come back with yet more dynamite, and so the process continues, to an end we cannot foresee.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)