Origin and History of Nitroglycerin

Chemist Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888)

              Nitroglycerin was first made by Ascanio Sobrero and he made it by nitrating glycerol. Glycerol is a common product found in many different things such as sweeteners and for food preservation. In 1847 Ascanio Sobrero was working in the University of Turin. He found that it was a great explosive but it was dangerous because it was extremely sensitive. He advised against using it as a explosive but people ended up using it anyways because it was the first compound that was more explosive than black powder.

               Back then, nitroglycerin was called pyroglycerin, pyro meaning fire. When it became commercially used, there were many casualties because of the instability of nitroglycerin. An example was when America wanted to use nitroglycerin to blast through rock for the Central Pacific Railroad so they bought three crates but during the transportation of this compound, one crate exploded killing fifteen people. Transporting liquid nitroglycerin was then banned in California and eventually other states and countries caught on and stopped transporting this explosive and made nitroglycerin on the mining site instead.

                Eventually dynamite was developed because everyone stopped buying and transporting liquid nitroglycerin. Dynamite was more stable and it was made by mixing nitroglycerin with diatomite. Eventually dynamite almost completely replaced nitroglycerin for blasting purposes.