TNT wasn’t even know to be an explosive for some 30 years after its invention. Surprisingly it was first used as a yellow dye for clothing and other products. Source
The reason nobody realized it was an explosive is because it’s extremely stable. You can light it on fire and shoot it with a gun and it still wont go off. It takes heat and an intense shock far greater than a bullet (keep in mind I’m also referring to the black powder period from 1863 when TNT was invented to 1891 when they first realized it was explosive. No smokeless powder yet) to make it detonate.
Also nitroglycerine is a completely different compound. Trinitrotoluene is TNT’s full name. 3 nitrogen dioxide groups attached to toluene. Nitroglycerine is 3 nitro groups attached to glycerine. Calling them the same thing (as someone else commented) is like calling a cat a dog because they have canine teeth.
TNT and dynamite are completely different just so you all know. Dynamite is nitroglycerine soaked into sawdust and diatomaceous earth to make it safer to handle and less likely to spontaneously explode. TNT is called TNT and is so safe it’s a struggle to detonate it. You need a much more sensitive explosive to seto ff TNT by providing the initial energy needed.
TNT wasn’t the first explosive, in fact it’s basically just nitroglycerin absorbed into a medium. People ready knew how to handle explosives when Alfred Nobel invented TNT.
TNT is TriNitroToluene, a different compound from nitroglycerin. But I did the same mistake at first glance at the question and assuming dynamite was meant…
I think making Nitroglycerine safe to handle was the entire point of TNT if I recall correctly?
No.
TNT is a different chemical and is safe on its own. Nitroglycerine isn’t.
Nitroglycerine soaked into sawdust and diatomaceous earth is called dynamite which is different from TNT
Yep.
Of the Nobel Peace prize?
Yeah same one. He created the prize after his brother died and some newspapers thought it was him and ran scathing Eulogies of him. He had a come to Jesus moment and decided he didn’t want to be remembered as “the merchant of death” as the papers called him. So he donated part of his fortune to the prize committee.
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Here’s a video of gunpowder burning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcT0c_ZzKUM
You can see it’s not very dangerous in this form. This would have been the first experience with something that could potentially make an explosive device. Compressing the gunpowder inside a container and then lighting it is what makes the explosion. That was learned through trial and error. No doubt people killed themselves messing around with gunpowder, and that is why there are plenty of written rules about it now.
All of this was learned long before TNT was purposefully invented.
the word is themself
A word.
