Dynamite is an explosive made by stabilising nitroglycerin, a highly unstable liquid, by absorbing it in an inert material. It was invented by the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel, who was seeking a safer way to handle nitroglycerin after an explosion at his family's factory in 1864 killed several people, including his younger brother Emil. He patented the new product in 1867 and sold it in the form of sticks. Dynamite transformed mining, quarrying, canal building and railway construction, and it was also used in warfare. The fortune Nobel earned from dynamite and other inventions funded the Nobel Prizes, established in his will.
Before and after
- 12 November 1866Birth of Sun Yat-sen
- 22 November 1866Birth of Wassily Kandinsky
- 1867Rise of Deobandi
- 1867Publication of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy
- 1867Dynamite
- 1867Joseph Lister introduces antiseptic surgery
- 14 January 1867Death of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- from 1 March 1867 to 28 October 1918Austria–Hungary
- 30 March 1867Alaska Purchase
More in Science & technology
- 1791Discovery of titanium
- 1797Discovery of chromium
- 1811Discovery of iodine
- 6 March 1869Periodic table
- 1884Car
- 1894Discovery of argon
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.