Book description
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.
