50 Fun Facts About Dynamite

In which year was dynamite patented?

1867: Nobel patented dynamite in Britain in May 1867 and in Sweden that October, with a US patent following in 1868.

Dynamite is usually sold with a 'weight strength', or nitroglycerin content, in what range?

20% to 60% nitroglycerin by weight is the usual range for commercial dynamite, so a 60% stick holds three times the nitroglycerin of a 20% stick of the same size.

In which city was Alfred Nobel born in 1833?

Stockholm: Alfred Nobel was born there on 21 October 1833, the third of the four Nobel brothers who survived to adulthood; the Nobel Prize ceremonies have been held in the city since 1901.

In which country was dynamite invented, at Geesthacht?

Germany: Nobel developed dynamite in the mid-1860s at the Alfred Nobel & Co. works at Krümmel, near Geesthacht outside Hamburg, a factory he had founded in 1865.

Which Italian chemist first synthesised nitroglycerin in the 1840s?

Ascanio Sobrero made nitroglycerin in Turin in 1847, called it pyroglycerin, and warned against using it as an explosive after a laboratory blast scarred his face.

What did Nobel find that finally stabilised nitroglycerin into a portable explosive?

Diatomaceous earth, or kieselguhr, a crumbly sediment of fossil diatom shells, soaked up about three times its weight of nitroglycerin and turned it into a paste that could be shaped into sticks.

Which river near Nobel's Hamburg factory supplied the fossil-algae absorbent that made dynamite possible?

Elbe: the absorbent was dredged from the Elbe near Nobel's Krümmel works at Geesthacht, upstream of Hamburg, and mixed roughly three to one with nitroglycerin.

Which device did Nobel invent to detonate nitroglycerin safely from a distance?

The blasting cap: Nobel's detonator, a small copper capsule of a sensitive primary explosive fired by a fuse, set off the nitroglycerin charge by shock and was perfected in 1865.

Which member of Nobel's family died in the 1864 nitroglycerin explosion at Heleneborg?

His brother Emil, aged 20, was one of five people killed when the family's Heleneborg shed blew up on 3 September 1864; the city authorities then banned nitroglycerin work inside its limits.

Which three chemicals did Nobel's 1864 patent use to synthesise nitroglycerin?

Sulfuric acid, nitric acid and glycerin: the glycerin is dripped into a chilled mixture of the two acids, the nitric acid nitrating it and the sulfuric acid absorbing the water formed.

Where did Nobel build the Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget works after the Heleneborg disaster?

Vinterviken, a secluded bay on Lake Mälaren just outside the city limits, housed the Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget works from 1865, after the Heleneborg blast ended nitroglycerin work inside the city.

Dynamite was the first safely manageable explosive stronger than which older explosive?

Black powder, the gunpowder used for blasting since the 17th century, was far weaker; dynamite rapidly replaced it in mining, quarrying and tunnelling.

Roughly how much energy does a standard 190-gram stick of dynamite contain?

1 megajoule, roughly: a standard 190-gram stick, a cardboard cylinder about 200 mm long and 32 mm across, holds about a million joules, comparable to the food energy in a chocolate bar.

What does the 'dope' in dynamite refer to?

The absorbent medium mixed with stabiliser is the 'dope': in a 40% dynamite, 40% of the weight is nitroglycerin and the other 60% is dope such as wood pulp and sodium carbonate.

What is the recommended maximum shelf life of nitroglycerin dynamite?

One year from manufacture is the recommended maximum for nitroglycerin dynamite under good storage; beyond that the sticks degrade and become more sensitive to shock and friction.

Why do explosives manuals recommend regularly turning boxes of stored dynamite upside down?

Because sticks weep nitroglycerin that pools at the bottom, turning the boxes over redistributes it; pooled nitroglycerin and the crystals that form on old sticks are far more shock-sensitive than fresh dynamite.

In drop-hammer tests, which of these detonates from the smallest drop height?

Mercury fulminate, the classic primary explosive, detonates under a 2 kg drop hammer from just 1-2 cm, against about 4-5 cm for nitroglycerin and 15-30 cm for dynamite.

Which country was the world's largest dynamite producer for decades from the 1940s?

South Africa was the world's biggest dynamite maker for decades from the 1940s, feeding the Witwatersrand gold mines from the AECI plants at Modderfontein and Somerset West.

Who first manufactured dynamite in the United States, under exclusive rights from Nobel?

Giant Powder of San Francisco, founded with Nobel's exclusive American licence, began making dynamite in 1868 at Rock House Gulch, now part of San Francisco's Glen Canyon Park.

Which two companies were formed when DuPont's explosives monopoly was broken up?

Hercules and Atlas: the 1912 antitrust decree against DuPont's 'Powder Trust' spun off the Hercules Powder Company and the Atlas Powder Company, both based at first in Wilmington, Delaware.

Where was the only US dynamite plant in operation in the early 2020s?

Carthage, Missouri: the plant there was the last in the United States turning out nitroglycerin dynamite in the early 2020s; rival brands sold in the country were made there and relabelled.

Why do cartoons like Bugs Bunny label every bomb 'TNT' rather than dynamite?

The confusion between the two explosives largely comes from those cartoons.

Why has dynamite never been popular in warfare?

It degenerates quickly and can be set off by fire or a bullet, so dynamite was never a practical munition; TNT, by contrast, is insensitive enough to be melted and cast into shells.

At what temperature can TNT be melted so it can be poured into shells?

81 °C (about 178 °F) is TNT's melting point, low enough to melt it safely in steam-heated vessels and pour it into shells, after which it re-solidifies unchanged.

TNT was first made in 1863 for what purpose?

A yellow dye: Julius Wilbrand prepared trinitrotoluene in 1863 as a dyestuff, and the compound was so insensitive that its explosive potential went unrecognised until Carl Häussermann's work in 1891.

Which army adopted TNT as a shell filling in 1902?

The German army adopted TNT as a shell filling in 1902, calling it Füllpulver 02, and the British followed with 'Trotyl' in 1907.

What did Russell Penniman's cheaper 1885 'Extra' dynamite substitute for nitroglycerin?

Ammonium nitrate has only 85% of nitroglycerin's chemical energy but is much cheaper.

What is the main ingredient of so-called 'military dynamite' (M1)?

It is 75% RDX and 15% TNT, with only 60% of the strength of commercial dynamite but far safer to store.

Which more powerful jelly-like explosive did Nobel patent in 1876?

Gelignite, or blasting gelatin, dissolved collodion nitrocellulose in nitroglycerin to make a stable, water-resistant jelly more powerful than dynamite; Nobel patented it in 1876.

How many patents did Alfred Nobel hold in his lifetime?

355 patents: Nobel filed his first, for a gas meter, in 1857 at the age of 24, and registered inventions across Europe in the six languages he spoke.

According to the famous story, a French newspaper's premature obituary called Nobel what?

The merchant of death: 'Le marchand de la mort est mort', the obituary supposedly ran in 1888 after mistaking his brother Ludvig's death for Alfred's; no copy of it has ever been found.

What share of his assets did Nobel's will leave to establish the Nobel Prizes?

94% of Nobel's estate, about 31 million Swedish kronor, was set aside by his 1895 will to endow the five prizes, leaving relatives only modest bequests.

In which Italian resort did Nobel die in 1896?

Sanremo, on the Ligurian Riviera, where Nobel had bought the Villa Nobel in 1891 and where he died of a stroke on 10 December 1896.

Nobelium, the synthetic element named after Alfred Nobel, has which atomic number?

102: nobelium sits between mendelevium (101) and lawrencium (103) among the actinides; it was first claimed in 1957, and the discovery was eventually credited to the Dubna laboratory in the Soviet Union.

Besides explosives, nitroglycerin has been used since 1878 to treat what?

Angina: nitroglycerin dilates blood vessels, and from 1878 the London physician William Murrell prescribed dilute doses for angina pectoris; Nobel himself was later prescribed it for his heart.

BTS's 2020 hit 'Dynamite' was the band's first song to be what?

Fully recorded in English for the first time, 'Dynamite' was written by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar and released in August 2020 as a pandemic pick-me-up.

What did BTS's 'Dynamite' achieve on the Billboard Hot 100?

Debuted at number one on the Hot 100 dated 5 September 2020, making BTS the first all-South Korean act to top the chart; it also earned their first Grammy nomination.

Which British singer had a 2010 hit called 'Dynamite', co-written by Max Martin?

Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite', co-written with Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco and Bonnie McKee, topped the UK chart and peaked at number two on the US Hot 100 in 2010.

Which Adele song outsold 'Dynamite' as North America's top digital-era British hit by 2012?

Rolling in the Deep was the best-selling digital song of 2011 in the United States across all artists, with about 5.8 million downloads that year, far ahead of 'Dynamite'.

On which 1970s sitcom did J.J. Evans make 'Dy-no-mite!' a national catchphrase?

Good Times, the Norman Lear sitcom that ran on CBS from 1974 to 1979; director John Rich insisted the catchphrase go into every episode, over Lear's doubts.

Who played J.J. Evans, the character behind 'Dy-no-mite!'?

Jimmie Walker, then 26, played the 17-year-old J.J. from the show's debut in 1974, and the catchphrase made him its breakout star.

In which small Idaho town is the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite set and shot?

Preston, Idaho, Jared Hess's own home town, where the film was shot on a budget of about $400,000 before grossing some $46 million worldwide.

Napoleon Dynamite grew out of which short film by Jared Hess and Jon Heder?

Peluca, a nine-minute black-and-white short Hess made as a Brigham Young University class project in 2002, starred Heder as a nerd named Seth, the prototype for Napoleon.

The wrestler known as the Dynamite Kid formed which tag team with his cousin Davey Boy Smith?

The British Bulldogs, Tom 'Dynamite Kid' Billington and Davey Boy Smith, won the WWF Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 2 in 1986 from Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine.

Under what name did its inventor originally intend to sell dynamite?

Nobel's Safety Powder was the name Nobel first considered before settling on 'dynamite', a coinage from the Greek word for power; he then policed the patents aggressively against unlicensed copies.

Under which famous French chemist did the young Alfred Nobel study in Paris?

Théophile-Jules Pelouze, a pioneer of nitrated cellulose, took the 17-year-old Nobel into his Paris laboratory around 1850, where Nobel first learned of nitroglycerin.

To which city did Alfred Nobel's father Immanuel move the family in 1842?

St Petersburg, where Immanuel Nobel had set up an engineering works making naval mines for the Tsar; his wife and sons joined him there in 1842, and Alfred was educated by private tutors.

Which company established the South African dynamite factory at Somerset West in 1902?

De Beers built the Somerset West works to supply the Witwatersrand gold mines; the plant was running by 1903 and by 1907 produced some 340,000 cases of dynamite a year.

As of 2025, which company was the only manufacturer of dynamite in the United States?

Dyno Nobel, the descendant of Nobel's own explosives companies, was the sole American dynamite maker as of 2025; rival brands sold in the US were its output under other labels.

How did some early American businessmen get around Nobel's dynamite patent?

By using absorbents such as resin instead of the mineral earth specified in Nobel's patent, rival American makers produced legally distinct dynamites and avoided paying for a licence.