History
Though early thermal weapons, such as Greek fire, have existed since ancient times, the first widely used explosive in warfare and mining was black powder, invented in 9th century China (see the history of gunpowder). This material was sensitive to water, and evolved lots of dark smoke. The first useful explosive stronger than black powder was nitroglycerin, developed in 1847. As nitroglycerin was unstable, it was replaced by nitrocellulose, smokeless powder, dynamite and gelignite (the two latter invented by Alfred Nobel). World War II saw an extensive use of new explosives (see explosives used during World War II). In turn, these have largely been replaced by modern explosives such as trinitrotoluene and C-4.
The increased availability of chemicals has allowed the construction of improvised explosive devices.
Read more about this topic: Liquid Explosives
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)