An excellent book on the overall history of explosives, from black powder to nuclear explosives. History of black powder be known as a and b blasting powder respectively. Also, in 1846, two plants were built in southwest england to make blasting powder using this sodium nitrate. Introduction to explosives for official use only anal ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder. In addition to nitroglycerin produced onsite, crews used as many as 500 kegs of black powder a day during the construction phase through the sierra nevadas. From 1866 to 1869, the central pacific built 15 tunnels and the union. Normal range 4 to 7 shallow holes 1 to 2 external loads. Too much charge or placing the hole too near a rock face will result in air burst, where rock flies into the air. Apr, 2004 gunpowder is the thousand year story of the development of black powder. Brief history of drilling and blasting gold rush trading. References the following materials should be accessible to all blasters and explosives instructors.
Custom powder coating and dustless blasting, ponca city, oklahoma. Blast effect report details date time shoteffect number locationproduction. Contemporary history of industrial explosives in america. Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. Used some muzzle loading powder to get rid of some pesky rocks that were keeping an area of our property soggy.
Shortly thereafter, black powder was put to use in the tin mines of england, and switzerland adopted blasting technology for road construction. Calculating powder factors the powder factor is a relationship between how much rock is broken and how much explosive is used to break it. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel or road construction. Get the best deals on other mining collectibles when you shop the largest online selection at. Gunpowder, also known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder. The main example of the book spends entire chapters on the guy soda blasting an old truck. Introduction to explosives for official use only c4. It can serve a variety of purposes, such as an indicator of how hard the rock is, or the cost of the explosives needed, or. Begun in 1833 by the 5 austin brothers to produce explosives used in blasting rock to build the canals, the firm opened plants in akron and cleveland. Gunpowder is the thousand year story of the development of black powder. It cranked out kegs of blasting powder for local and national mines, employed as many as 70 people, became part of the olin empire and was a downright dangerous place to work. The publication of the book history of explosions on which the american table. Hercules powder company, 1918 explosives 144 pages.
Nelson mcconahys personal experiences working at the american cyanamids powder mill in edinburg, pennsylvania during the late 1960s. Blasting powder definition, a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc. Coal mining accounts for twothirds of consumed explosives of which more than 80% of it is anfo. And the first surprise came very soon, when the explosives to which he owed his sudden chance of engagementdynamite in cases and blasting powder in barrelstaken on board, main hatch battened for sea, cook restored to his functions in the galley, anchor fished and the tug ahead, rounding the south foreland, and with the sun sinking clear and red down the purple vista of the channel, he. In 1857 lammot patented b blasting powderalso known as soda powder which used inexpensive peruvian and chilean sodium nitrate and made dupont a. A major explosion at the mill in 1964 eventually led to the closing of the plant in 1971. The first such explosive was black powdera mixture of saltpeter potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoalwhich is thought to have originated in china, where it was being used in fireworks by the 10th century. Because of its incendiary properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rockets, and fireworks, and as a blasting powder in quarrying, mi. The a powder continued in use for special purposes that required its higher quality, principally for firearms, military devices, and safety fuses. Basically useful blasting info you dont get in a manual. To use it, holes had to be pounded into rock by hand. If you have an account on fandom with the same username as on gamepedia, we have a very simple set of instructions to resolve the conflicting username. History of explosives and blasting in the us and canada alone, blasters use more than 6 billion pounds of explosives and 75 million detonators per year. The mixture formulas in this book do not contain enough saltpeter to create an.
Blasting powder definition is black powder usually containing sodium nitrate manufactured in grains or pellets and used especially for blasting soft materials as in. The book starts out with a couple of short histories of the development of black powder and then goes into the chemistry and compounding precedures for the traditional form of black powder. High explosives, blasting powder, blasting supplies, sporting powder, chemicals. Gunpowder was invented in 9thcentury china as one of the four great. Featured texts all books all texts latest this just in smithsonian libraries fedlink us genealogy lincoln collection. Glossing gunpowder corns with graphite was already an accepted technique in 1839, and sodium nitratebased blasting powder had been made in peru for many years using the sodium nitrate mined at tarapaca now in chile. Drilled 34 hole 16 deep, filled with black powder, and used toaster nichrome. In 1857, alfreds son lammot du pont 18311884 developed b blasting powder, using chilean sodium nitrate instead of the previously used potassium nitrate saltpeter from india.
Piatts thorougly researched history bodie, the mines are looking well, plus unpublished essays. The nobel prizes were established by none other than inventor alfred nobel 18331896. But besides being the namesake behind one of the most prestigious awards given annually for academic, cultural and scientific achievements, nobel is also wellknown for making it. Cole and 2002 bali nightclub bombings recommended in alqaedas traditional curriculum of explosives training. We learn in class the chemistry of black powder, the powder but not the history so accurately told.
Items in the worthopedia are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members research needs. Search the history of over 431 billion web pages on the internet. Take a close look at this 19thcentury ad for the giant powder company, the first. Currently, the resort exists in exactly the same spot where that simple tin roof building once stood. Part of this work is to look at techniques, shot patterns, diameter of shot holes and quantity of powder.
The 15 tunnels along the central pacific line required massive amounts of explosives to blast through solid granite. Custom powder coating and dustless blasting home facebook. A railroad construction foreman, phineas was blasting rock near cavendish, vermont, in 1848 when a. On techniques, the problem was that it was, probably by nature of the task, short on. Wwi era dupont high explosives book dynamite blast gel. Black powder exemplifies for me the endless learning, experimentation, and creativity that fireworking holds for us. For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, are called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur. The largest coverage is for gun powder detailing the history of its use in guns, bombs, rockets and mining. Gunpowder, any of several lowexplosive mixtures used as propelling charges in guns and as blasting agents. Blasting powder definition of blasting powder by merriam. Books isee international society of explosives engineers. It also details some alternative formulas when the most common components are not available. Prior to that time, black powder was commonly called gun powder, or in larger granulations, blasting powder, or cannon powder.
Covers several important changes in explosives developed by the atlas powder company starting with their acquisition us rights to nobels invention dynamite. Army artillery ballincollig ballistics barrels black powder blasting board of ordnance bomlitz bristol burn calcium nitrate cannon charcoal charge chemical combustion copper corned powder crown delhi sultanate devices early eighteenth century engineering explosives feuerwerkbuch fifteenth century figure fire. Jul 17, 2002 black blasting powder is a classic example of a low explosive. Blasting powder article about blasting powder by the. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Our high tech system applies a very fine metallic grit to an item at various pressures to remove unwanted materials like paint, rust, and mill scale. I would have liked some more diagrams to illustrate some of the points the author was talking about. Get the best deals on other mining collectibles when.
In the early days, black powder, a relatively lowpower explosive was the only blasting agent available. The book was interesting, but i got the feeling that everything was being skimmed over. Total ohms blasting machine face height feet hole diameter inches number of holes spacing feet burden feet stemming feet maximum lbsdelay period holesdelay powder factor primer used total explosives used mats used yes no seismic data location of seismographs blasters name helpers name blasters signature supervisorcoordinator. The innovation spread quickly throughout europe and the americas.
The term sand blasting has been replaced by abrasive blasting. You can adjust the hole depth, powder charge, and hole distance from the rock face to meet your requirements. As a kid, the few experiments made toward black powder were failures. The doityourself gunpowder cookbook mclean, don on. Apr 19, 2012 black powder blasting posted in chemistry. High explosives history and the folks whose name became. The history of the powder house is as enchanting as its location. The first such explosive was black powdera mixture of saltpeter potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoalwhich is thought to have originated in china, where. Black powder pucks, pressed and crumbled third step i take 16 ounces of the dry pine charcoal milldust, add 0. Gunpowder, or black powder also called blasting powder, is not a chemical, but a mixture, though its decomposition, or deflagration, is a chemical reaction between potassium nitrate saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal mixed by weight roughly in the ratio 6.
As a formally educated chemist who as a child began his interest in chemistry by making black powder in his backyard, and what kid didnt in the 1950s, i found this book fascinating. History of explosives and blasting mining engineer first. In 1857 lammot patented b blasting powderalso known as soda powderwhich used inexpensive peruvian and chilean sodium nitrate and made dupont a. Today, black blasting powder, which was the primary blasting agent a century ago, peaking in 1917 at about 125,645 metric tons 277 million pounds, is no longer permitted to be taken into underground coal mines and has. When a friend wanted help cleaning his guns, i volunteered. It was used in coal mines, for example, to shatter the coal in the seam so that it could be removed. Literature on explosives and blasting researchgate. The egyptian powder company was a post turn of the century business that was the first known to manufacture explosives in southern illinois. When the west was still young and wild, underground mining called for blasting powder, a cheap explosive manufactured on the west coast since 1864 by the california powder works. Technical volume on various aspects of explosives and rock blasting. The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. History black hills lodging black hills vacation powder. Custom powder and blasting offers powder coating and mobile dustless sand blasting. Drilling and blasting at bodie, california, today a mining ghost town.
Once used for storing blasting powder and bootleg liquor, the original powder house was a small building made out of large logs and covered with a tin roof. Application of directional blasting in mining and civil engineering. Obviously there is a lot of material to cover, so it is understandable. On media blasting it was very thorough, covering equipment, materials, and techniques. Black powder bp is an almost ridiculously simple pyro ingredient. The use of explosives in mining goes back to the year 1627, when gunpowder was first used in place of mechanical tools in the hungarian now slovak town of banska stiavnica. A century of bureau of minesniosh explosives research. We are preparing to move all fandom and gamepedia logins to a unified login system.
A hole was drilled in the coal face, a charge of black powder was tamped into the hole, the hole sealed with a foot or so of tamped clay, and the powder exploded either by a fuse or. The description of the tests of flameless powders is of especial interest. Phineas gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. New book highlights real story behind 1936 murder and explosion that rocked sioux falls and made national headlines. Blasting powder article about blasting powder by the free. Out of the depths of the wild bunch ammo, explosives and manual bunker and up for your perusal on this outstanding texas finally cool, winter evenin is a scarce piece of u. The first recorded use of black powder for demolition purposes appears to have occurred in the early 1600s, when quarries in hungary began using it for rock blasting. Mostly just three chemicals, blended together in simple ways, but producing wonderful results. This book provides the specifications for construction blasting projects that ca. How to blast, or break rock with blasting powder, gun powder. Rock blasting book has 646 pages of pictures and blasting terminology.
Tons of rock powder factor lbs of explosives the higher the powder factor, the lighter the load. The dates of the application of these terms, and even its earliest name remains uncertain. Blasting powder definition is black powder usually containing sodium nitrate manufactured in grains or pellets and used especially for blasting soft materials as in coal mines called also black blasting powder. Drilling and blasting as a tunnel excavation method. This book chronicles mcconahys personal experiences working at. Nov 23, 2016 robinson, who also addressed the powder house blast in an earlier novel called diamond trump, is happy to shed light on what continues to be a significant event in the history of sioux falls. The author provides a history of the process and details various ways to. Analysis and trends can be used as a main charge but requires booster for detonation terrorists use al powder in main charges to increase heat output serves to prolong the high pressure of an explosion. The history of explosives and blasting research at the u.
Not 5 stars, because i was hoping for more on metal preparation other than the media blasting. Begun in 1833 by the 5 austin brothers to produce explosives used in blasting rock to build. From 1866 to 1869, the central pacific built 15 tunnels and the union pacific built 4 four tunnels on the transcontinental line. Black powder and nitroglycerin the transcontinental railroad. I know and understand that a great deal of the information i am looking for was held in the heads of the old powder monkeys however i. Peabody energy celebrating 125 years coal mining history book with letter 2008. Its cleveland factory, bought from the cleveland powder co. Good day gentlefolks, i am currently doing some work which involves some of the history of bp in blasting. Black blasting powder is a classic example of a low explosive. This process would later influence the companys decision to purchase lands in chile. Gunpowder, also known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. History of black powder the following is adapted from a chronology of black powder by richard d frantz. Among the many improvements made to mining technology during the industrial revolution, perhaps the most important involved drilling and blasting. Aug 08, 2015 used some muzzle loading powder to get rid of some pesky rocks that were keeping an area of our property soggy.
It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. It cranked out kegs of blasting powder for local and national mines, employed as many as 70 people, became part of the olin empire and was a. Meeting the miners friend science history institute. Egyptian powder company marion illinois history preservation. Brooks powder coating offers this as a stand alone service or in. History of gunpowder in timeline popular timelines. Powder factor tons of rock or cubic yards per pounds of explosive.
1047 923 1125 865 564 995 733 289 1476 1104 494 684 45 1567 1107 120 1091 1153 1402 644 430 1108 888 733 877 672 811 42 250 390 1457 1028 664 760