Please describe the process by which the chemist developed nitroglycerine. Did he know what he was doing? Or was it a lucky guess? How long did it take him to develop the methodology of creating it? What were his failures? What was his motivation? Thanks for your video it's very interesting. Sam.
All explosives have their own oxygen, it's what makes an explosive an explosive. The amount does vary a lot. TNT only has enough oxygen to burn about 60 percent of itself. Ammonium nitrate has a lot of extra oxygen, about 30 percent of the oxygen is left over after the explosion. Nitroglycerin has almost the perfect amount of oxygen, with slight excess, it's about 3 percent left over oxygen after the explosion
@@ShannonDove-sy7ye Can one make a "designer" explosive with even less than 3% residual material left over after the explosion, or are there other parameters that need to be considered? One would think there would be others developed after more than a century of NG being in use.
there will always be leftovers... even when detonating a nuclear device, not all of the fissile material is converted to energy... the world is only perfect on paper
Watching this video made me realize that the use of dynamite in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, which is set during the American Civil War (1861-1865) was anachronistic by a few years, as dynamite wasn’t invented until 1866, nor commercially available until a few years later.
Maybe so . ..but nitroglycerin was discovered about 20 years before the civil war. They should have used cans of NG instead of dynamite. Cans of NG was used in blasting.
@@ShannonDove-sy7ye Exactly! But since it was so dangerous, kegs of gunpowder where used instead of NG cans in the Battle of the Crater mine explosion during the Seige of Petersburg in 1864.
Dynamite was invented by the Taoese of China in 1000AD..well over 1000 years ago ..and was used in rockets cannon and mortars at the time ...including fireworks ..
This was what I was about to comment upon hearing the first phrase of the video: "explosives ran in Alfred Nobel's blood - okay not literally." I was instantly confused, initially having interpreted that he was implying that Alfred Nobel had taken it for medical reasons.
The whimsical menu of the Jahn's ice cream.parlors that once delighted hordes of NYC youngsters featured imaginative names for their imaginative concoctions. In addition to their flagship "the kitchen sink: everything but" were smaller but far-from-small extravaganzas. One super-duper sundae was billed as "the bombshell: blow yourself up". In my much-later years, I thought of this every time I took my nitroglycerin tablet. Alas, only one Jahn's remains and it's mostly a diner, and I've been switched to something called isosorbide mononitrate.
I realize it's a minor detail within the context of your videos, but out of all the popscience channels I follow, yours is the only one that cares about proper pronunciation of names. Much appreciated :)
Thats interesting because I always thought the original designation for Mines was "Torpedos" Then with the development of the Whitehead "Locomotive Torpedo" that name migrated to its current usage....... It is a classically British description I must say!
@@trooperdgb9722 No idea about English, but in Russian it's exactly like that: mines were originally referred as "torpedo" (translation is redundant here) since as early as 1864 (since at least 1877 the russified form "torpeda" is known, which is primarily used today) and what we currently call torpedoes was referred as "samodvizhuscheyesya torpedo" (lit. self-propelled torpedo) in 1865. The term didn't stick tho, and up till the 1917 torpedoes were called "samodvizhuschiyesya miny" (lit. self-propelled mines), mines were called "miny" (the translation-redundancy-o-meter is firmly off-scale). The remnants of that system survive till this very day in Russian terms for [torpedo boat] destroyer (eskadrennyy minonsets, usually clipped as esminets - lit. squadron mine-bearer), torpedo cruiser (minnyy kreyser - lit. mine cruiser), torpedo boat tender (minnyy transport - lit. mine transport) and torpedo boat (this one actually has several terms - minnyy kater/minnaya lodka etc., all literally meaning "mine boat" with different terms for "boat", later the term "minonoska" - lit. "mine-bearer[ess]" - appears and in 1878 designated as official); the last one tho nowadays is usually called "torpednyy kater" - "torpedo cutter". P/S: Hope you weren't bored by my small philological rant)
The Wright brothers said the same thing about airplanes, that if opposing armies had airplanes that could drop bombs, war would be impossible. This was an inspiration for them to develop airplanes. One of the brothers lived to see world war 2
Such an amazing video! I would love to see a video about Linus Pauling’s life and the way he contributed to quantum chemistry and protein science. I think such video is missing right now on RUclips and Pauling was such an influential chemist.
While some may think his invention makes him a bad person because of its potential use in war, i think it makes him a really good guy. Dynamite is simply a tool, a tool to blow up things, which can be extremely useful. It has contributed to mining operations massively, aswell as road building, demotion of old structures, terraforming, and railroad construction. Theses are all important civilian times projects. At the end of the day, it is up to humanity to decide how they will use the tool, and up to humanity to use it in a manner that will do good.
It kinda makes one wonder… just how many will never speak of the technologies they have envisioned; let alone research them in any depth because they are too well aware of how easily their innovations could be abused, and would sooner die than entrust even the basic concept which they have devised to any modern institution? What innovations would be possible were we not living in an inhuman dystopia and all were truly free to innovate without fear of their creations being harnessed to vile ends? Leonardo DaVinci actually designed war machines for some of his career. As a pacifist, he intentionally included design flaws in all of his blueprints, in hopes that if the lord who employed him would ever commit acts of senseless violence, the weapons would fail him, while he still got paid for every design he created. It is, in my opinion the noblest of frauds ever committed. My point is maybe we could have such technological miracles as FTL travel and fusion power, but those who could offer Humanity such creations know they could be weaponized in ways that make a nuke look like a firecracker, so they never speak of their ideas, let alone put pen to paper.
Chemist are not going to keep quiet about a discovery just because it might not be good for society. Humans don't work that way. When we discover something interesting, we want to shout from the rooftop about it, we want praise for being so smart.
I would say, that Alfred Nobel was spot on with his idea of people stopping wars, if they new they could obliterate each other in seconds - that is pretty much the reason why atom bombs are not being used. His dynamite was just too weak.
Yes true, the dynamite was too weak. But I read that bombing raids with regular explosives such as dynamite could kill just as many as a nuclear device. The US could have done just as much destruction without the nuclear bo..
I'm a mining engineer. 35 years experience. I can say than our "modern" way of life strictly depends on minerals we extract from the earth. If Nobel hasn't invented the dynamite, we wouldn't be watching youtube to learn about this.
Might be interesting to do a video on how they mastered the industrial production of such a sensitive material. They had to figure out how to nitrate glycerin safely, store it safely, and to build nitration facilities that could be run remotely, In earlier days the nitration shed had slides on the sides of the building so the operator could escape if the nitration showed signs of getting out of control. Might be interesting also to trace the development of ammonium nitrate as a blasting agent, leading to far less dynamite being used in mining, although gelatin dynamite is still used in some hard rock mines. There's a lot of interesting chemistry history in explosive development, and there's new ones still in development - check out CL-20! Thank you kindly for the great video! Cheers...
I wish I could agree that it is ‘humanity’ which decides how these technologies are used. Instead, it is a very small section of humanity, the sort who would better be described as ‘inhumanity’. Thanks for a great presentation.
Just one comment regarding the black powder used in Nobel’s initial blasting cap. Black powder doesn’t detonate which is why it is classified as a low explosive or a propellant. He likely moved to mercury fulminate because it is a primary high explosive and it does detonate meaning it creates a shock (or detonation) wave. The detonation wave is needed to properly initiate a high explosive, such as nitroglycerin.
Black powder can generate a shockwave when contained. In fact the image at 7:24 says f) svartkrutladdning, which means “black powder charge”. Dynamite still has some sensitivity, unlike trinitrotoluene which is much harder to detonate.
@@24680kong No it can’t. That’s why NG replaced black powder as a blasting explosive in the 1860s later to be replaced by dynamite. Black powder cannot burn fast enough to reach DDT nor propagate a detonation wave to maintain detonation. This is scientifically proven. Post one reference from a peer reviewed scientific journal that states bp detonates…
@@24680kong Black powder cannot generate a shock wave. If it could it would have a reported velocity of detonation, and it doesn’t. The whole purpose of nitroglycerin as a blasting explosive was to replace black powder. If black powder detonated there wouldn’t be a need for NG.
Nitroglycerin was used in the petroleum drilling industry in the early years. It would be poured into cylindrical metal containers called "torpedos" (the current naval torpedo were originally called "automotive torpedos"). The torpedo would be dropped down the borehole to clear blockages of rock chips. There are accounts of workrrs filling up torpedos in their kitchen (with a wood stove nearby) with the predictable tesult from time to time - BOOM. Gun cotton (highly nitrated cellulose >~ 13% N) was also a 19C invention. It soon was banned in many countries due to the risk of unintended explosions. In its dry form a single spark can detonate it; nitrated cellulose is unstable in storage unless high purity control is in place to remove excess nitric acid; even then stabilizers must be used to absorb free nitro groups. Yet, the Brits found dissolving gun cotton in nitroglycerin make a suitable smokeless gunpowder - cordite (which needs stabilizers for long term safe storage). Nobel had invented Ballistite in a similar manner but used less nitrated cellulose and sued the British government for infringement of his UK patent l but lost in the UK.
Sounds like Nobel was in the same camp as Gatling. He invented the rotary multi-barelled gun in the hope of making war too terrible to wage. Both men were far too optimistic about the future of warfare.
depending on how you see things. Nobel did get his wish fullfilled in a way. The Nukelear bomb (Nuke) is the bomb he envisioned, and it would never had worked whitout his invention the dynamite. Several shaped charges of dynamite sorrounds the core made out of plutonium among others. and to detonate the bomb you detonate the dynamite charges to essentially compress the core to a critical point. So in the end he kinda got his wish. after the nukes invention we haven't had any really large scale war due every one being scared shitless about triggering a nuklear war. Sure there been a large amount of smaller wars, but none among the nations whom have nukes. But ofcourse that dosn't stop countris of "saber ratteling" like when nazi russia is just about weekly for the past 20 or so years treatening the world with nukes. (i'm not kidding about it, there is an official list of every time russia has maked a nuke treath. and its about weekly for the past 20 years, and is still regularly updated.)
Came here to share info. I once worked for world color. A printing business. I worked in gravure printing. Smelled like spray paint. The ingredient was tolulene which happens to be the Tri-Nitrate-Tolulene ingredient. (Maybe spelling it wrong.) There were 2 retaining tanks. They were huge. At least 25 foot tall and maybe 20 across. They said if it blew up it would be pretty substantial. I could be wrong. I was young.
"Now Alfred, I want you to eat something! You don't eat like you should to stay healthy." "In a minute, Sophie. I'm doing some very sensitive work with my new invention: Nitroglycerin." Four minutes later... "ALFRED!!!" "AARRGHH!!! Don't DO that! One wrong move and we all go up in a flash! What do you want?" "I'm making you a sandwich. Would you like ham and Gruyere with salad cream, or would you like French dip?" "Uh, the ham and Gruyere. By the way, would you please find out the town where Professor Kravowicz is holding the symposium on organic chemistry next month?" "Of course. I shall be right back." Four minutes later... "**BANG**or, Maine!!!" "AARRGHH!!! Don't DO that! It's one thing to soil myself; it's another thing entirely to turn this estate into a pile of toothpicks! What do you mean, 'Bangor, Maine'?" "The symposium is being held there." "Ah! Very good. Now, if you don't mind, please play something soothing. Something soft." Thirty seconds later... "GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!! GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!! GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!!..." "Disturbed? Really, Sophie...?"
Hi! Thank you for the video. I have one question: Are you sure the equation is correct for the decomposition of glycerin trinitrate? It's strange that the production of CO is favored compared to the more stable CO2. (4C3H5N3O9→6N2+10H2O+12CO2+O2) (4:17)
Nitro is one of the most unstable and dangerous explosives ever made. In dynamite it was much more stable and easier to handle. But when it got old, hot, or unstable that was a different story. I know of several incidents where people blew themselves up handling old or leaking dynamite. In one case a kid found an abandoned storage shed (at least 40 years old according to investigators) near an old, registered coal mine and inside was dynamite (they had to guess how much from the blast radius) which vaporized him, the shed, and collapsed the mine (really a hole dug in the side of a hill). It may have been an illegal coal mine (sometimes during the Great Depression, out of work miners would cut shafts in coal rich areas to dig out and sell coal to make money or heat their homes.)
It really depends on what you mean by "nitro". Ammerican craft breweries quite often make draught beer which is powered by nitrogen and call it "nitro".
Interesting, but surprised that when you mentioned where he had factories you missed out his one Ardeer in Ayrshire Scotland. Which was at one point reputed to be the largest explosives factory in the world. Nobel also stayed there for a while.
Nitrate groups are common to many explosives, such as TNT (trinitrotoluene) a toluene molecule with three (3) nitrate groups at positions, 2 (ortho), 4 (para), and 6 (ortho) around the benzene ring. Likewise, a key ingredient in gun powder is Potassium Nitrate (KNO3). Unfortunately, Nitroglycerine is easy to make with chemicals that are easily obtained, especially the Glycerin which can be bought anyplace in gallon jugs. Many pool stores sell Sulfuric acid in place of Hydrochloric acid for pools because it does not emit fumes. All that's left is buying Nitric Acid and that is easily done. The dangerous part is carrying out the nitration, then the handing of the shock sensitive product. Amateur kitchen chemists trying this are in danger because they do not know what they are doing but have the cocky egotistical notion that they do. I have had a couple of reactions in the lab almost (keyword, almost) go out of control and had i not been paying attention and known what to do, they would have.
Are you aware that "hobby" chemists are ahead of those in industry and academia when it comes to energetic materials? Many of us either have extensive chemistry education or have taught themselves to the same or higher levels? There are always going to be idiots but chemistry has a strong history of "hobbyists" making major discoveries.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 That is your takeaway from the long and detailed comment?! Your response supports my thesis about amateurs being cocky and egotistical. Thanks for providing a real-life example. I stand by what i said. Amateur Chemists should not be fooling around with dangerous materials especially explosives. Okay name those major discoveries made by "hobbyists." You don't get to make claims without evidence them.
@@wayneyadams I put the term "hobbyists" in quotes because I and most of my friends in this area have chemistry educations. You completely misunderstood and took away exactly what you wanted to see. Congratulations, you're the cocky, egotistical person you so clearly disdain. All I was saying was that the bleeding edge of this research and technology isn't being done by industry or academia. There's Klapotke's lab but other than that it's not currently profitable and therefore not worth the time for industry. "Hobbyists" have discovered, adapted and optimized far safer primaries than used in any industrial or military product. You decided to see exactly what you wanted, you come off as an egotistical, elitist asshole. I hope that's what you intend to show the world, otherwise well...
@@wayneyadams seems RUclips erased my comment. I and most of the people I know who do research in this area have extensive chemistry education and laboratory experience. You're the only one sounding egotistical and cocky. The fact that research is happening outside of industry or academia doesn't mean it's not considerably ahead of what most of them are doing with the exception of Klapotke's lab. My comment was trying to point this out but you saw what you wanted to. Congratulations, you sound like an elitist, egotistical, fool.
Dynamite like this was still being used in 1960s...there was a dirt cave the city had dug into side of river bank as kids we used to go in there and wipe sweat off sticks to entrance and flick off finger and laugh at explosion....we should be dead...stuffs probably still there city didn't care about our part of town..tucson
Automobiles. Y'know when a car backfires and sounds like a shot..? Those are older autos that required a decent amount of glycerin to lubricate poorer fitting moving parts before the interchangeable assembly line was ubiquitous. Add to that large volumes of nitric stabilizers in the fuel, and you'd get occasional micro volumes of these explosive compounds. Over time, that's why you started to hear ppl refer to really cherry rides as being "dynamite!" Source: -Gentleman Panda 🎩🤏🏻 🐼 ~ Cheers!
Fritz Haber would be an interesting subject. He figured out how to make ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen, so facilitating Germany's explosives production for WW1, and fertiliser production to enable Earth to sustain a larger population. A conflicted man indeed.
Considering Nobel worked with Nitroglycerin, explosives were literally in his blood at some point, assuming he probably inhaled the stuff from time to time.
What is with these scientists thinking they can end wars alltogether? First, Mr. Gatling creating the gatling gun saying „It’s so devastating, my invention will end wars and fighting“ Then Alfred Nobel saying the same, And then everyone on the nuke teams saying the same! We live in a fallen world! War will NEVER end.
Almost every cutting edge achievement of science and technology are always used in war. Military are always some of the first to adopter a new technology, often partner to their development (computer chip or touchscreen anyone?). The fact that a large portion of scientists working in Manhattan projects were either already nobel lauriate or went to win a nobel prize tells us that Science will never ensure peace. If Alfred Nobel established Nobel prize to ensure peace, he failed. May be he established that to preserve his legacy only. After all, that's what it resulted.
Thanks for this video but I miss the part of the invention to use nitro for medical use, this could be intresting, lets take a high very unstable explosive and use it on a human.....?
Diatomaceous earth is formed by the diatom as a silicate exoskeleton. It's not fossilized diatoms. Fun fact, I used to work in a lab built upon the site of his Hercules Dynamite Factory, in Hercules, California, across the Bay from San Francisco.
Thanks to Opera for sponsoring this video. Click here: opr.as/Opera-browser-chemistorian to upgrade your browser for FREE!
saying to your fans to download spyware that steals all your data? Nope
@@spaceguy20_12 nonsense, a browser would be banned for "stealing all your data"
Vivaldi is better.
Please describe the process by which the chemist developed nitroglycerine. Did he know what he was doing? Or was it a lucky guess? How long did it take him to develop the methodology of creating it? What were his failures? What was his motivation?
Thanks for your video it's very interesting. Sam.
@@xcvbnm98765 yeah well it steals your almost location even when you don’t want it
Great video. Very interesting. I especially liked hearing Einstein's voice ♥ Thank you!
The explanation of the molecule having the oxidizer built in and not needing O2 is very good.
All explosives have their own oxygen, it's what makes an explosive an explosive. The amount does vary a lot. TNT only has enough oxygen to burn about 60 percent of itself. Ammonium nitrate has a lot of extra oxygen, about 30 percent of the oxygen is left over after the explosion. Nitroglycerin has almost the perfect amount of oxygen, with slight excess, it's about 3 percent left over oxygen after the explosion
@@ShannonDove-sy7ye Can one make a "designer" explosive with even less than 3% residual material left over after the explosion, or are there other parameters that need to be considered? One would think there would be others developed after more than a century of NG being in use.
there will always be leftovers... even when detonating a nuclear device, not all of the fissile material is converted to energy... the world is only perfect on paper
I'm so happy that I found this channel. You definitly deserve more subs. 7:45 and yes, which chemist doesn't?
Thanks for another great video! Not only do you make them really easy to understand and informative, you actually manage to make them interesting!! 👏🏼
Watching this video made me realize that the use of dynamite in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, which is set during the American Civil War (1861-1865) was anachronistic by a few years, as dynamite wasn’t invented until 1866, nor commercially available until a few years later.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Maybe so . ..but nitroglycerin was discovered about 20 years before the civil war. They should have used cans of NG instead of dynamite. Cans of NG was used in blasting.
@@ShannonDove-sy7ye Exactly! But since it was so dangerous, kegs of gunpowder where used instead of NG cans in the Battle of the Crater mine explosion during the Seige of Petersburg in 1864.
@@phdtobe interesting
Dynamite was invented by the Taoese of China in 1000AD..well over 1000 years ago ..and was used in rockets cannon and mortars at the time ...including fireworks ..
A channel that does the history of chemistry? Yes please! How has YT never recommended this channel to me before?
It's pretty good too!
Because they're afraid we'll misuse it. Just ask any kid playing with a chemistry set.
Nitroglycerin is also a vascular dilator......in this aspect it is a medicine that can save lives in case of stroke or heart attack.....
This was what I was about to comment upon hearing the first phrase of the video: "explosives ran in Alfred Nobel's blood - okay not literally." I was instantly confused, initially having interpreted that he was implying that Alfred Nobel had taken it for medical reasons.
I'm also a little disappointed that he didn't take the opportunity to bring it up at 8:08.
The whimsical menu of the Jahn's ice cream.parlors that once delighted hordes of NYC youngsters featured imaginative names for their imaginative concoctions. In addition to their flagship "the kitchen sink: everything but" were smaller but far-from-small extravaganzas. One super-duper sundae was billed as "the bombshell: blow yourself up". In my much-later years, I thought of this every time I took my nitroglycerin tablet.
Alas, only one Jahn's remains and it's mostly a diner, and I've been switched to something called isosorbide mononitrate.
@@harveywachtel1091 Are there any warnings about it being explosive on the packaging? Like, do the pills blow up if you chew on them?
@@alvinnorin8820 As far as I know they are not explosive. I imagine thar the nitro us mixed with enough inactive ingredients.
This guy was literally Oppenheimer before Oppenheimer.
Boomenpopper
Killed more people… so far anyway.
Difference was Oppenheimer saw that there was no hope for nobels line of thinking firsthand. Thats why we got his i am become death quote
@cielararagi3195
Oppenheimer didn't discover atomic fission. And he did not create any of the nuclear physics.
He was the project manager.
Only Oppenheimer was literally Oppenheimer. You can't even reason properly. Refrain from commenting ever again.
I realize it's a minor detail within the context of your videos, but out of all the popscience channels I follow, yours is the only one that cares about proper pronunciation of names. Much appreciated :)
"pop science" is not science. At least, somehow you confess being a ret rded gen z brat.
Now that I have watched the video I want to know what drug you are on. His pronunciation of every name, including dynamis, is terribly wrong.
"pop science" is not science.
You must be a gen z kid.
At least, you somehow, confess being ret rded.
“infernal machines” actually made me laugh for like 10 seconds
Thats interesting because I always thought the original designation for Mines was "Torpedos" Then with the development of the Whitehead "Locomotive Torpedo" that name migrated to its current usage....... It is a classically British description I must say!
@@trooperdgb9722 No idea about English, but in Russian it's exactly like that: mines were originally referred as "torpedo" (translation is redundant here) since as early as 1864 (since at least 1877 the russified form "torpeda" is known, which is primarily used today) and what we currently call torpedoes was referred as "samodvizhuscheyesya torpedo" (lit. self-propelled torpedo) in 1865. The term didn't stick tho, and up till the 1917 torpedoes were called "samodvizhuschiyesya miny" (lit. self-propelled mines), mines were called "miny" (the translation-redundancy-o-meter is firmly off-scale). The remnants of that system survive till this very day in Russian terms for [torpedo boat] destroyer (eskadrennyy minonsets, usually clipped as esminets - lit. squadron mine-bearer), torpedo cruiser (minnyy kreyser - lit. mine cruiser), torpedo boat tender (minnyy transport - lit. mine transport) and torpedo boat (this one actually has several terms - minnyy kater/minnaya lodka etc., all literally meaning "mine boat" with different terms for "boat", later the term "minonoska" - lit. "mine-bearer[ess]" - appears and in 1878 designated as official); the last one tho nowadays is usually called "torpednyy kater" - "torpedo cutter".
P/S: Hope you weren't bored by my small philological rant)
The Wright brothers said the same thing about airplanes, that if opposing armies had airplanes that could drop bombs, war would be impossible. This was an inspiration for them to develop airplanes. One of the brothers lived to see world war 2
And now they’re dropping grenades from small drones. War just isn’t fair anymore.
Great video. The history of science is often fascinating.
Such an amazing video! I would love to see a video about Linus Pauling’s life and the way he contributed to quantum chemistry and protein science. I think such video is missing right now on RUclips and Pauling was such an influential chemist.
DynoNobel is still one of the biggest explosives suppliers in the world to this day. I enjoyed the video, thank you!
I just love physics and chemistry..I look forward to learn the history behind these discoveries
Very great video, quite saddening how you have such little subscribers for the quality of work.
So interesting. So well explained!
Dynamite is so much fun, it's a real blast. Cheers!
While some may think his invention makes him a bad person because of its potential use in war, i think it makes him a really good guy.
Dynamite is simply a tool, a tool to blow up things, which can be extremely useful.
It has contributed to mining operations massively, aswell as road building, demotion of old structures, terraforming, and railroad construction.
Theses are all important civilian times projects.
At the end of the day, it is up to humanity to decide how they will use the tool, and up to humanity to use it in a manner that will do good.
Very informative video. Thank you for explaining chemistry.
Thumbnail and animations are 🔥
Another awesome video, keep up the good work!
And people now do have this "running through their blood" as nitroglycerin is a vasodilator and is used to treat angina and some other conditions.
Another great video. Many thanks (again).
Please allow the record to reflect that this video is why I subbed :)
Clear well explained with intelligent reflections in the later parts.
Thank you. Very educational and it expanded my knowledge of the inventor and the first peace prizes history.
You touched the guilt aspect, outstanding.
It kinda makes one wonder… just how many will never speak of the technologies they have envisioned; let alone research them in any depth because they are too well aware of how easily their innovations could be abused, and would sooner die than entrust even the basic concept which they have devised to any modern institution?
What innovations would be possible were we not living in an inhuman dystopia and all were truly free to innovate without fear of their creations being harnessed to vile ends? Leonardo DaVinci actually designed war machines for some of his career. As a pacifist, he intentionally included design flaws in all of his blueprints, in hopes that if the lord who employed him would ever commit acts of senseless violence, the weapons would fail him, while he still got paid for every design he created. It is, in my opinion the noblest of frauds ever committed.
My point is maybe we could have such technological miracles as FTL travel and fusion power, but those who could offer Humanity such creations know they could be weaponized in ways that make a nuke look like a firecracker, so they never speak of their ideas, let alone put pen to paper.
You're welcome
well said
Chemist are not going to keep quiet about a discovery just because it might not be good for society.
Humans don't work that way. When we discover something interesting, we want to shout from the rooftop about it, we want praise for being so smart.
If a scientist discovered fusion or FTL travel he's not going to keep it a secret, you can bet the farm on that.
(Easy cold fusion)
AI just may be one of those Ideas!
I've just found this channel. Excellent videos my friend. Subscribed 😊
Surprised by the Opera content, thanks! I depend on Opera, and have converted a few others to it.
very nice that you found the Einstein recording
I would say, that Alfred Nobel was spot on with his idea of people stopping wars, if they new they could obliterate each other in seconds - that is pretty much the reason why atom bombs are not being used. His dynamite was just too weak.
Yes true, the dynamite was too weak. But I read that bombing raids with regular explosives such as dynamite could kill just as many as a nuclear device. The US could have done just as much destruction without the nuclear bo..
Absolutely fascinating!
U earned a new sub
I'm a mining engineer. 35 years experience. I can say than our "modern" way of life strictly depends on minerals we extract from the earth. If Nobel hasn't invented the dynamite, we wouldn't be watching youtube to learn about this.
I remember watching the documentary on nitroglycerin Dynamite 🧨 Dynamite was a way of hauling nitroglycerin safely
There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. Dynamite, thermonuclear weapons, A.I..
That's enthalpy maaaan
Might be interesting to do a video on how they mastered the industrial production of such a sensitive material.
They had to figure out how to nitrate glycerin safely, store it safely, and to build nitration facilities that could be run remotely, In earlier days the nitration shed had slides on the sides of the building so the operator could escape if the nitration showed signs of getting out of control. Might be interesting also to trace the development of ammonium nitrate as a blasting agent, leading to far less dynamite being used in mining, although gelatin dynamite is still used in some hard rock mines.
There's a lot of interesting chemistry history in explosive development, and there's new ones still in development - check out CL-20! Thank you kindly for the great video! Cheers...
The way that ammonium nitrate was discovered to be explosive is horrifying.
Chemistry is so cool
Alfred Nobel and Richard Gatling.
Two men who fruitlessly hoped their destructive weapons would scare countries into ending war forever.
Thank you for filling in the details how dynamite and the Nobel prize came into being.
Amazing Video.. Very Energentic & Nobel Inspirising.. Great Cheers
I wish I could agree that it is ‘humanity’ which decides how these technologies are used. Instead, it is a very small section of humanity, the sort who would better be described as ‘inhumanity’. Thanks for a great presentation.
I think this video was the first time I ever heard a recording of Einstein's voice, and I have been to the place where his birthhouse in Ulm stood XD
Excellent video. Thanks heaps❤
Very good dissertation on the life and times of Alfred Nobel et al.
Fantastic video! Thank you
Just one comment regarding the black powder used in Nobel’s initial blasting cap. Black powder doesn’t detonate which is why it is classified as a low explosive or a propellant. He likely moved to mercury fulminate because it is a primary high explosive and it does detonate meaning it creates a shock (or detonation) wave. The detonation wave is needed to properly initiate a high explosive, such as nitroglycerin.
Black powder can generate a shockwave when contained. In fact the image at 7:24 says f) svartkrutladdning, which means “black powder charge”. Dynamite still has some sensitivity, unlike trinitrotoluene which is much harder to detonate.
@@24680kong No it can’t. That’s why NG replaced black powder as a blasting explosive in the 1860s later to be replaced by dynamite. Black powder cannot burn fast enough to reach DDT nor propagate a detonation wave to maintain detonation. This is scientifically proven. Post one reference from a peer reviewed scientific journal that states bp detonates…
@@24680kong find me the detonation velocity for black powder and list your reference.
@@24680kong Black powder cannot generate a shock wave. If it could it would have a reported velocity of detonation, and it doesn’t. The whole purpose of nitroglycerin as a blasting explosive was to replace black powder. If black powder detonated there wouldn’t be a need for NG.
Thank you, you made making my school presentation actually fun (impossible but true)
Nitroglycerin was used in the petroleum drilling industry in the early years. It would be poured into cylindrical metal containers called "torpedos" (the current naval torpedo were originally called "automotive torpedos"). The torpedo would be dropped down the borehole to clear blockages of rock chips. There are accounts of workrrs filling up torpedos in their kitchen (with a wood stove nearby) with the predictable tesult from time to time - BOOM.
Gun cotton (highly nitrated cellulose >~ 13% N) was also a 19C invention. It soon was banned in many countries due to the risk of unintended explosions. In its dry form a single spark can detonate it; nitrated cellulose is unstable in storage unless high purity control is in place to remove excess nitric acid; even then stabilizers must be used to absorb free nitro groups.
Yet, the Brits found dissolving gun cotton in nitroglycerin make a suitable smokeless gunpowder - cordite (which needs stabilizers for long term safe storage). Nobel had invented Ballistite in a similar manner but used less nitrated cellulose and sued the British government for infringement of his UK patent l but lost in the UK.
Nitrocellulose just burns if you put a match to it
Here from the Reddit post 🔥
Sounds like Nobel was in the same camp as Gatling. He invented the rotary multi-barelled gun in the hope of making war too terrible to wage. Both men were far too optimistic about the future of warfare.
They actually made war more fun for people who wage war.
depending on how you see things. Nobel did get his wish fullfilled in a way. The Nukelear bomb (Nuke) is the bomb he envisioned, and it would never had worked whitout his invention the dynamite. Several shaped charges of dynamite sorrounds the core made out of plutonium among others. and to detonate the bomb you detonate the dynamite charges to essentially compress the core to a critical point.
So in the end he kinda got his wish. after the nukes invention we haven't had any really large scale war due every one being scared shitless about triggering a nuklear war. Sure there been a large amount of smaller wars, but none among the nations whom have nukes. But ofcourse that dosn't stop countris of "saber ratteling" like when nazi russia is just about weekly for the past 20 or so years treatening the world with nukes. (i'm not kidding about it, there is an official list of every time russia has maked a nuke treath. and its about weekly for the past 20 years, and is still regularly updated.)
Things are always used for terrible things not by man kind but by the few elites who always want more.
Came here to share info.
I once worked for world color. A printing business. I worked in gravure printing. Smelled like spray paint. The ingredient was tolulene which happens to be the Tri-Nitrate-Tolulene ingredient. (Maybe spelling it wrong.)
There were 2 retaining tanks. They were huge. At least 25 foot tall and maybe 20 across. They said if it blew up it would be pretty substantial.
I could be wrong. I was young.
Awesome vid brother. Critical thinking 💯 ❤
Thank you for this excellent video about Dynamite .....
Old F-4 Phantom ll fighter jet Shoe🇺🇸
"POETRY, I WANT YOU TO BLOW THINGS UP!"
Son eventually blows himself up. Has a stroke in guilt, never recovers.
@@Jmcinally94 maybe he should have stuck to poetry.
@@Jmcinally94Alfred Nobel didn't explode himself.
@@Jmcinally94are you ret rded?
@@Jmcinally94are you re arded?
"Now Alfred, I want you to eat something! You don't eat like you should to stay healthy."
"In a minute, Sophie. I'm doing some very sensitive work with my new invention: Nitroglycerin."
Four minutes later...
"ALFRED!!!"
"AARRGHH!!! Don't DO that! One wrong move and we all go up in a flash! What do you want?"
"I'm making you a sandwich. Would you like ham and Gruyere with salad cream, or would you like French dip?"
"Uh, the ham and Gruyere. By the way, would you please find out the town where Professor Kravowicz is holding the symposium on organic chemistry next month?"
"Of course. I shall be right back."
Four minutes later...
"**BANG**or, Maine!!!"
"AARRGHH!!! Don't DO that! It's one thing to soil myself; it's another thing entirely to turn this estate into a pile of toothpicks! What do you mean, 'Bangor, Maine'?"
"The symposium is being held there."
"Ah! Very good. Now, if you don't mind, please play something soothing. Something soft."
Thirty seconds later...
"GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!! GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!! GET UP, COME ON GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!!..."
"Disturbed? Really, Sophie...?"
What is the energy that is released?
Beautiful 😍 BRILLIANT WORK 👏 👌 😀
Somehow this feels like my first time hearing Einstein's voice.
Fritz Haber is another interesting scientist that I don't see being talked about that much.
Equal but opposite reaction . Guilt followed by remorse doesn`t cut it .
Hi! Thank you for the video. I have one question: Are you sure the equation is correct for the decomposition of glycerin trinitrate? It's strange that the production of CO is favored compared to the more stable CO2. (4C3H5N3O9→6N2+10H2O+12CO2+O2) (4:17)
I like that scare people not to use it. A same or similar phrase used for A Bombs.
Nitro is one of the most unstable and dangerous explosives ever made. In dynamite it was much more stable and easier to handle. But when it got old, hot, or unstable that was a different story. I know of several incidents where people blew themselves up handling old or leaking dynamite. In one case a kid found an abandoned storage shed (at least 40 years old according to investigators) near an old, registered coal mine and inside was dynamite (they had to guess how much from the blast radius) which vaporized him, the shed, and collapsed the mine (really a hole dug in the side of a hill). It may have been an illegal coal mine (sometimes during the Great Depression, out of work miners would cut shafts in coal rich areas to dig out and sell coal to make money or heat their homes.)
It really depends on what you mean by "nitro". Ammerican craft breweries quite often make draught beer which is powered by nitrogen and call it "nitro".
Interesting, but surprised that when you mentioned where he had factories you missed out his one Ardeer in Ayrshire Scotland. Which was at one point reputed to be the largest explosives factory in the world. Nobel also stayed there for a while.
Nitrate groups are common to many explosives, such as TNT (trinitrotoluene) a toluene molecule with three (3) nitrate groups at positions, 2 (ortho), 4 (para), and 6 (ortho) around the benzene ring. Likewise, a key ingredient in gun powder is Potassium Nitrate (KNO3). Unfortunately, Nitroglycerine is easy to make with chemicals that are easily obtained, especially the Glycerin which can be bought anyplace in gallon jugs. Many pool stores sell Sulfuric acid in place of Hydrochloric acid for pools because it does not emit fumes. All that's left is buying Nitric Acid and that is easily done. The dangerous part is carrying out the nitration, then the handing of the shock sensitive product. Amateur kitchen chemists trying this are in danger because they do not know what they are doing but have the cocky egotistical notion that they do. I have had a couple of reactions in the lab almost (keyword, almost) go out of control and had i not been paying attention and known what to do, they would have.
Are you aware that "hobby" chemists are ahead of those in industry and academia when it comes to energetic materials? Many of us either have extensive chemistry education or have taught themselves to the same or higher levels? There are always going to be idiots but chemistry has a strong history of "hobbyists" making major discoveries.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 That is your takeaway from the long and detailed comment?!
Your response supports my thesis about amateurs being cocky and egotistical. Thanks for providing a real-life example.
I stand by what i said. Amateur Chemists should not be fooling around with dangerous materials especially explosives.
Okay name those major discoveries made by "hobbyists." You don't get to make claims without evidence them.
@@wayneyadams I put the term "hobbyists" in quotes because I and most of my friends in this area have chemistry educations. You completely misunderstood and took away exactly what you wanted to see. Congratulations, you're the cocky, egotistical person you so clearly disdain. All I was saying was that the bleeding edge of this research and technology isn't being done by industry or academia. There's Klapotke's lab but other than that it's not currently profitable and therefore not worth the time for industry. "Hobbyists" have discovered, adapted and optimized far safer primaries than used in any industrial or military product. You decided to see exactly what you wanted, you come off as an egotistical, elitist asshole. I hope that's what you intend to show the world, otherwise well...
@@wayneyadams seems RUclips erased my comment. I and most of the people I know who do research in this area have extensive chemistry education and laboratory experience. You're the only one sounding egotistical and cocky. The fact that research is happening outside of industry or academia doesn't mean it's not considerably ahead of what most of them are doing with the exception of Klapotke's lab. My comment was trying to point this out but you saw what you wanted to. Congratulations, you sound like an elitist, egotistical, fool.
Dynamite must be rotated regularly. It was the first Permissable Explosive in Coal Mining.
Dynamite like this was still being used in 1960s...there was a dirt cave the city had dug into side of river bank as kids we used to go in there and wipe sweat off sticks to entrance and flick off finger and laugh at explosion....we should be dead...stuffs probably still there city didn't care about our part of town..tucson
You must watch the great Roy Schieder movie "Sorcerer" Leaky Dynamite to the max!
Nobel prize same guy as made dynamite , good public relations
Was dynamite ever used for something different than a explosive? Like something powered by dynamite?
Automobiles. Y'know when a car backfires and sounds like a shot..? Those are older autos that required a decent amount of glycerin to lubricate poorer fitting moving parts before the interchangeable assembly line was ubiquitous. Add to that large volumes of nitric stabilizers in the fuel, and you'd get occasional micro volumes of these explosive compounds.
Over time, that's why you started to hear ppl refer to really cherry rides as being "dynamite!"
Source:
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Fritz Haber would be an interesting subject. He figured out how to make ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen, so facilitating Germany's explosives production for WW1, and fertiliser production to enable Earth to sustain a larger population. A conflicted man indeed.
Nerve gasses too.
If black powder is able to detonate dynamite why modern blasting caps use the more dangerous primary explosives sensible to shock?
dynamite have transformed oil production too
Static sea mines were also initially called 'torpedos' (a type of electric fish) before the name appended to the underwater 'rockets' we know today.
This is the first time ever that I've heard Einstein's voice.
You should make a video about the discovery of black powder and smokeless powder too
3:30, showing stronger, more stable bonds, but they seem to be made up of double and triple bonds which are less stable.
Nuclear weapons have ended war between those nations who have nuclear weapons.
Considering Nobel worked with Nitroglycerin, explosives were literally in his blood at some point, assuming he probably inhaled the stuff from time to time.
Did anyone here first learn of nitro glycerin from that one episode of "Little House on the Prairie"?
👍 Two thumbs up 👍
the only problem with dynamite sticks is sometimes they would sweat nitroglycerin out and yu have the old problem back with it
"Petrol is not explosive."
* laughs in Otto cycle engine *
Very nice but I do wish people wouldn't keep saying. THE HMS something. Never,ever used to happen! It's just HMS.
What is it mixed with?
Phowerful
Really nice Video! Can you make a video about transistors? I think this invention was at least as important as nitroglycerin.
What is with these scientists thinking they can end wars alltogether?
First, Mr. Gatling creating the gatling gun saying „It’s so devastating, my invention will end wars and fighting“
Then Alfred Nobel saying the same,
And then everyone on the nuke teams saying the same!
We live in a fallen world!
War will NEVER end.
I'm thinking too say... Detenation
I cant believe the 1900s version of a subtweet was the domino that lead to the celebration of human progress.
I understand that nitroglycerin is a useful heart medication. How did that happen?
It's a blast. 😅😅
Almost every cutting edge achievement of science and technology are always used in war. Military are always some of the first to adopter a new technology, often partner to their development (computer chip or touchscreen anyone?). The fact that a large portion of scientists working in Manhattan projects were either already nobel lauriate or went to win a nobel prize tells us that Science will never ensure peace. If Alfred Nobel established Nobel prize to ensure peace, he failed. May be he established that to preserve his legacy only. After all, that's what it resulted.
Why is there no Nobel prize foŕ Mathematics?
Because it’s not a math prize.
Thanks for this video but I miss the part of the invention to use nitro for medical use, this could be intresting,
lets take a high very unstable explosive and use it on a human.....?
According to The Three Stooges, dynamite doesn't blow UP, it blows DOWN. LOLL.
Diatomaceous earth is formed by the diatom as a silicate exoskeleton. It's not fossilized diatoms. Fun fact, I used to work in a lab built upon the site of his Hercules Dynamite Factory, in Hercules, California, across the Bay from San Francisco.
Even though your English is ret rded.
Read your first sentence and think if it's right.
Even though you're supposedly American your English is completely гєтагdєd.