The big bang : a history of explosives / G.I. Brown ; foreword by Adam Hart-Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, G. I. (George Ingham)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Explosives--History.

Explosives.

History.

Physical Description:

256 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Stroud, Gloucestershire : Sutton Pub., 1998.

Summary:

By the author of The Guinness History of Inventions -- from gunpowder to the nuclear bomb -- this is the first scientific history of explosives.

Covering more than 1,000 years, this dramatic study starts with gunpowder, the only explosive used until the mid-19th century, invented by the Chinese in about 850 A.D., and present in the western world about 500 years later. It was replaced by dynamite, guncotton, gelignite, cordite, ballistite, TNT, RDX, PETN, and AFNO. Finally, the atomic bomb, first dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the post-war developments of the H-bomb. The Big Bang tells of the personalities who have played crucial roles in the long history and development of explosives: Roger Bacon, Alfred Nobel, the Duponts, and many others.

With highlights on the uses and impacts of explosives in both war and terrorism, civil engineering, quarrying, mining, demolition, fireworks and sports, The Big Bang is an entertaining study of an explosive subject.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [246]-247) and index.

ISBN:

0750918780

OCLC:

40348081