Download or read book Gunpowder Explosives and the State written by Brenda J. Buchanan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gunpowder studies are still in their infancy despite the long-standing civil and military importance of this explosive since its discovery in China in the mid-ninth century AD. In this second volume by contributors who meet regularly at symposia of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), the research is again rooted in the investigation of the technology of explosives manufacture, but the fact that the chapters range in scope from the Old World to the New, from sources of raw materials in south-east Asia to the complications of manufacture in the West, shows that the story is more than the simple one of how an intriguing product was made. This volume is the first to develop the implications of the subject, not just in the sense of relating it to changing military technologies, but in that of seeing the securing of gunpowder supplies as fundamental to the power of the state and imperial pretensions.The search for saltpetre, for example, an essential ingredient of gunpowder, became a powerful engine of sea-going European trade from the early seventeenth century. Smaller states like Venice were unable to form these distant connections, and so to sustain a gunpowder army. Stronger states like France and Britain were able to do so, and became even more powerful as the demand for improved explosives fostered national strengths - leading to a development of the sciences, especially chemistry, in the former case, and of manufacturing techniques in the latter.
Download or read book Gunpowder And High Explosives written by Willoughby Walke and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written as part of the United States military's preparations for the First World War, this book is a thorough and informative examination of the history and science of explosives. From the earliest days of gunpowder to the most recent advances in high explosives, this book is a fascinating journey through the explosive history of humanity. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Gunpowder written by Jack Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Chinese alchemists fashioned the first manmade explosion sometime during the tenth century, no one could have foreseen its full revolutionary potential. Invented to frighten evil spirits rather than fuel guns or bombs-neither of which had been thought of yet-their simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal went on to make the modern world possible. As word of its explosive properties spread from Asia to Europe, from pyrotechnics to battleships, it paved the way for Western exploration, hastened the end of feudalism and the rise of the nation state, and greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution. With dramatic immediacy, novelist and journalist Jack Kelly conveys both the distant time in which the "devil's distillate" rose to conquer the world, and brings to rousing life the eclectic cast of characters who played a role in its epic story, including Michelangelo, Edward III, Vasco da Gama, Cortez, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, and E.I. DuPont. A must-read for history fans and military buffs alike, Gunpowder brings together a rich terrain of cultures and technological innovations with authoritative research and swashbuckling style.
Download or read book Summary of State Laws Pertaining to Explosives written by United States. Bureau of Mines and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Summary of State Laws Pertaining to Explosives written by United States. Department of the Interior. Office of the Solicitor. Mines Division and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Black and Smokeless Powders written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-01-29 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some 600 pipe bomb explosions have occurred annually in the United States during the past several years. How can technology help protect the public from these homemade devices? This book, a response to a Congressional mandate, focuses on ways to improve public safety by preventing bombings involving smokeless or black powders and apprehending the makers of the explosive devices. It examines technologies used for detection of explosive devices before they explodeâ€"including the possible addition of marking agents to the powdersâ€"and technologies used in criminal investigations for identification of these powdersâ€"including the possible addition of taggants to the powdersâ€"in the context of current technical capabilities. The book offers general conclusions and recommendations about the detection of devices containing smokeless and black powders and the feasibility of identifying makers of the devices from recovered powder or residue. It also makes specific recommendations about marking and tagging technologies. This volume follows the work reported in Containing the Threat from Illegal Bombings (NRC 1998), which studied similar issues for bombings that utilize high explosives.
Download or read book Military Explosives written by United States. Army. Ordnance Department and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dangerous Energy written by Wayne D. Cocroft and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book comprises a national study of the explosives industry and provides a framework for identification of its industrial archaeology and social history. Few monuments of gunpowder manufacture survive in Britain from the Middle Ages, although its existence is documented. Late 17th-century water-powered works are identifiable but sparse. In the later 18th century, however, the industry was transformed by state acquisition of key factories, notably at Faversham and at Waltham Abbey.In the mid-19th century developments in Britain paralleled those in continental Europe and in America, namely a shift to production on an industrial scale related to advances in armaments technology. The urgency and large-scale demands of the two world wars brought state-directed or state-led solutions to explosives production in the 20th century. Yhe book’s concluding section looks at planning, preservation, conservation and presentation in relation to prospective future uses of these sites.
Download or read book History of the Explosives Industry in America written by Arthur Pine Van Gelder and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 1210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A narrative history of the explosives industry in the United States and Canada that discusses the technical development of the industry as well its commercial history.
Download or read book Explosives in History written by Norman B. Wilkinson and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Summary of State Laws Pertaining to Explosives written by United States. Department of the Interior. Office of the Solicitor. Mines Division and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Index to the Literature of Explosives written by Charles Edward Munroe and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Boom written by Simon Quellen Field and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2017-07-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black powder, the world's first chemical explosive, was originally developed during the Tang dynasty in China.It was a crude mixture at first, but over time chemists discovered the optimum proportion of sulfur, charcoal, and nitrates, as well as the best way to mix them for a complete and powerful reaction. Author and chemistry buff Simon Quellen Field takes readers on a decades-long journey through the history of things that go boom, from the early days of black powder to today's modern plastic explosives. Not just the who, when, and why, but also the how. How did Chinese alchemists come to create black powder? What accidents led to the discovery of high explosives? How do explosives actually work on a molecular scale? Boom! The Chemistry and History of Explosives reviews the original papers and patents written by the chemists who invented them, to shed light on their development, to explore the consequences of their use for good and ill, and to give the reader a basic understanding of the chemistry that makes them possible.
Download or read book Explosives written by G I Brown and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining and informative book tells the dramatic tale of explosives from gunpowder to the H-bomb. Laying the emphasis on the lives of the people involved, on the diverse uses of explosives and on their social and historical impact, the author relates a story of remarkable international and human endeavour. Many of those involved - Roger Bacon, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, Robert Oppenheimer - are famed worldwide; others, such as C F Schonbein, William Bickford, Sir Frederick Abel and Charles E Munroe, though less well-known, also played critical roles. Alongside their achievements, this book highlights the uses and impact of explosives in both war and terrorism, and in civil engineering, quarrying, mining, demolition, fireworks manufacture and shooting for sport. In many cases explosives are seen to have had a significant historical impact as, for example, in the early use of gunpowder in the American Civil War, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the worldwide opening up of canals and railways.
Download or read book The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives written by Tenney Lombard Davis and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-05-19 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a type of unconventional explosive weapon that can be deployed in a variety of ways, and can cause loss of life, injury, and property damage in both military and civilian environments. Terrorists, violent extremists, and criminals often choose IEDs because the ingredients, components, and instructions required to make IEDs are highly accessible. In many cases, precursor chemicals enable this criminal use of IEDs because they are used in the manufacture of homemade explosives (HMEs), which are often used as a component of IEDs. Many precursor chemicals are frequently used in industrial manufacturing and may be available as commercial products for personal use. Guides for making HMEs and instructions for constructing IEDs are widely available and can be easily found on the internet. Other countries restrict access to precursor chemicals in an effort to reduce the opportunity for HMEs to be used in IEDs. Although IED attacks have been less frequent in the United States than in other countries, IEDs remain a persistent domestic threat. Restricting access to precursor chemicals might contribute to reducing the threat of IED attacks and in turn prevent potentially devastating bombings, save lives, and reduce financial impacts. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals prioritizes precursor chemicals that can be used to make HMEs and analyzes the movement of those chemicals through United States commercial supply chains and identifies potential vulnerabilities. This report examines current United States and international regulation of the chemicals, and compares the economic, security, and other tradeoffs among potential control strategies.
