Explosives

History with a Bang

G.I. Brown

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2010
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9780752476131
• Subtopic: Power Resources
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The dramatic history of explosives, from the invention of gunpowder to the H-bomb
 
Laying the emphasis on the lives of the people involved, on the diverse uses of explosives, and on their social and historical impact, this entertaining history relates a story of remarkable international and human endeavor. Many of those involved—Roger Bacon, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, Robert Oppenheimer—are famed worldwide; others, such as C.F. Schonbein, William Bickford, Sir Frederick Abel, and Charles E. Munroe, though less well-known, also played critical roles. Alongside their achievements, this book highlights the uses and impact of explosives in both war and terrorism, and in civil engineering, quarrying, mining, demolition, fireworks manufacture, and shooting for sport. In many cases explosives are seen to have had a significant historical impact as, for example, in the early use of gunpowder in the Civil War, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the worldwide opening up of canals and railways.

Table of contents

• Title
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 The Invention of Gunpowder
• Chapter 2 Making Gunpowder
• Chapter 3 The Powder Trust
• Chapter 4 Testing Gunpowder
• Chapter 5 ‘Crakys of War’
• Chapter 6 Mining and Civil Engineering
• Chapter 7 Gunpowder Modifications
• Chapter 8 Nitroglycerine
• Chapter 9 Dynamite
• Chapter 10 Guncotton
• Chapter 11 Smokeless Powders
• Chapter 12 Lyddite and TNT
• Chapter 13 Setting It Off
• Chapter 14 Nuclear Fission
• Chapter 15 The Manhattan Project
• Chapter 16 Nuclear Fusion
• Appendix I Names and Formulae
• Appendix II Energy and Power
• Bibliography
• Copyright