Origins of Black powder

Black powder or gun powder (there is a slight difference but that’s for another time).  This is the first man made explosive ever.  It originates from 19^th century china.  It was first made by accident by alchemists looking for an elixir of immortality.  They me not have made immortality possible but those alchemists did make one of the most important discoveries ever the first explosive.   Black powder was first used for fireworks and early cannons and basic missiles in china.  This new found technology rapidly spread across Asia through the Middle East and into Europe.

This is ottoman heavy cannon, possibly the biggest black powder weapon ever. This mussel loading behemoth is over 5 meters long and weighs 16.6 tons.

The Geography

Now explosives may not seem geographical to some people but they actually are.  To start right at the beginning explosives are made from essentially ground up rocks and rocks are geographical.  Then there’s the fact that the world would be a totally different place without explosives.  For example buildings like the Dundrum shopping sinter wouldn’t exist; actually most large buildings need explosives to make the hole needed to make the foundations.  Cars wouldn’t exist because there engines work by blowing up petrol inside the cylinders.  When you come to think about it we would actually still be in pretty much the renaissance period if it wasn’t for explosives.  So explosives have shaped the world around us and something that shapes the world has to be considered geographical.

Thermite and Propane

This is what happens if you have molten thermite raining onto a propane canester

http://www.gifbin.com/984991

famouse exsplosives of history

Here are some of most famous explosives of history

1.       Black powder has to be at number one because it is the first explosive ever! It is a mix of ground charcoal, sulphur powder and potassium nitrate.  It has been around for over a thousand years and was first made in china

2.       At number two is possibly the most known explosive ever.  TNT or trinitrotlurian first made by German chemist Julius Wilbrand it is a stabilized version of nitro glycerin.  This is the first safe high explosive.

3.       Next is C4 a favorite of the US army.  Made famous by games like call of duty, C4 is probably the most stable explosive ever.  This is true to such an extent that in Vietnam US soldiers used to use it as cooking fuel.

What exsplosives are used for

There are thousands of uses for explosives.  The most commonly known one is for killing people but it is in fact one of its least common uses.  The most common place you will find high violist explosives is in your car.  Air bags are inflated by the chemical reaction when nitro guanidine is ignited.  This rapid expansion of gas pushes the bag into your face reducing the impact and saving your life.

Other common uses for explosives are mining, fireworks, Rockets, excavated and many more.  Rockets as in the ones NASA use are powered by explosives all a rocket engine dose is directionalis an explosion.  NASA’s rockets are a bit more sophisticated but run on the same principle.  Make a fast traveling and rapidly islanding gas in a certain direction and it will force what’s containing it to go the other way.  It is of cores a lot more complicated than that but I haven’t got time to go into greater detailed.

In my next post I will cover famous explosives of history.

How exsplosives work

Explosions are just a chemical reaction.  When the chemicals in the explosive react they create large volumes of gases.  These gases have to go somewhere so they push outwards destroying or moving anything in their way.  For example in trinitrotoluene (or as it is more commonly known as TNT) which is one of the most commonly known explosives.   The damage it causes is by 15 moles of gas pressing out from the space which was once occupied by 2 moles of TNT.  1 mole is about 18 grams so for a gas which weigh’s next to nothing tats a lot for though who don’t know that.  Basically the gas is going to push outwards until it is taking up an amount of space it’s happy with.  And since the gas is relisted at such a high rate you have the damage caused by the impact as well as the pressure.  So if you put explosives in an enclosed space it will find a way out. 

These properties of explosives make them very useful for many purposes some of which I will cover in my next post.