50 Fun Facts About Dynamite

In which year was dynamite patented?

Nobel took out patents in England in May and Sweden in October of that year.

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

The rest is sorbent and stabiliser.

Which Ancient Greek word, meaning 'power', gives dynamite its name?

Nobel had originally planned to call it Nobel's Safety Powder.

In which country was dynamite invented, at Geesthacht?

Nobel had moved there after founding Dynamit Nobel.

Which Italian chemist first synthesised nitroglycerin in the 1840s?

He called it pyroglycerin and warned vigorously against using it as an explosive.

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

He had tried cement, coal and sawdust first; the fossil algae came from a river near his Hamburg factory.

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

Some American firms dodged Nobel's patent by using other absorbents such as resin.

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

His 1863 detonator used a copper percussion cap.

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

Five people were killed and Nobel lost his licence to make explosives in Stockholm.

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

The same year he patented his detonator.

Where did Nobel found the company Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget after the Heleneborg disaster?

He wanted a more isolated site, then moved on to Germany to set up Dynamit Nobel.

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

It rapidly replaced it in mining and construction.

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

Sticks are cardboard cylinders about 200 mm long and 32 mm across.

What does the 'dope' in dynamite refer to?

So 40% dynamite is 40% nitroglycerin and 60% dope.

What is the recommended maximum shelf life of nitroglycerin dynamite?

Old sticks 'weep' nitroglycerin, which pools in the box.

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

Crystals forming on the sticks make them more sensitive to shock and friction.

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

With a 2 kg hammer it goes off at 1-2 cm, against 15-30 cm for dynamite.

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

Demand came from the Witwatersrand gold mines; De Beers opened the Somerset West factory in 1902.

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

DuPont later bought Giant, and the DuPont monopoly was broken up in the 1911-12 Powder Case.

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

Today only Dyno Nobel makes dynamite in the US.

Where is the only US facility still producing dynamite?

Other firms buy it from Dyno Nobel and put their own labels on the boxes.

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?

TNT, by contrast, is stable enough to be melted and poured into shells.

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

It re-solidifies with no change in its characteristics.

TNT was first made in 1863 for what purpose?

Julius Wilbrand's compound was so insensitive that its explosive potential went unnoticed for thirty years.

Which army adopted TNT as a shell filling in 1902?

That was some 40 years after dynamite was invented.

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?

Also called blasting gelatin, it combined nitroglycerin with nitrocellulose compounds.

How many patents did Alfred Nobel hold in his lifetime?

He filed his first at 24 and was fluent in six languages.

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

Historians cannot verify the tale, in which the paper mistook his brother Ludvig's 1888 death for his.

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

That was 31,225,000 Swedish kronor after taxes and personal bequests.

In which Italian resort did Nobel die in 1896?

His Villa Nobel overlooked the Mediterranean.

Which synthetic element is named after Nobel?

His name also survives in Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel.

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

It works as a vasodilator; William Murrell pioneered the treatment.

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

It was written by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar as a pandemic pick-me-up.

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

BTS became the first all-South Korean act to top the chart, and the song earned their first Grammy nomination.

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

It reached number two in the US and topped the UK chart.

By 2012 'Dynamite' was North America's second best-selling digital-era song by a British artist. Which track was first?

It had sold over 5.7 million copies in the US and Canada.

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

Director John Rich insisted the actor say it in every episode, over Norman Lear's doubts.

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

He was 26 when the show began, playing a 17-year-old.

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

Jared Hess made it for about $400,000; it grossed $46.1 million worldwide.

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

The 9-minute black-and-white short was a BYU class project about a nerd named Seth.

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

Bret Hart considers Tom Billington one of the most influential in-ring performers ever.

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

He switched to a coinage from the Greek dýnamis, 'power', and tightly policed the patents, shutting down unlicensed copycats.

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

Pelouze, whose pupil Ascanio Sobrero had first made nitroglycerin, warned Nobel it was far too shock-sensitive to be a commercial explosive.

Where did Alfred Nobel's father Immanuel move the family in 1838 after bad business deals in Sweden?

Immanuel built bridges and founded Sweden's first rubber factory; his blasting work inspired his son's search for something better than black powder.

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

Demand came from the Witwatersrand gold mines; by 1907 the plant, later run by AECI, was turning out 340,000 cases a year.

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

Other firms buy its output from the Carthage, Missouri plant and simply put their own labels on the sticks and boxes.

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

Nobel's patents, granted in England and Sweden in 1867, hinged on diatomaceous earth as the stabilising absorbent.