Lennart Thornros <lenn...@thornros.com> wrote: > > I agree that dynamite was used by many. > "Many" is not the issue. Dynamite and other explosives were used mainly by governments, or in projects paid for by governments. Nearly every dollar that Nobel earned came from governments. There were no other legitimate customers for gigantic explosions.
Dynamite sticks were used by farmers and other in the late 19th and early 20th century, but this was on a far smaller scale. However, I tried to say thhose guys took the risk, they made it into a > product they benefited from. > The guys who took the risk were the workers on the Transcontinental Railroad and Wells Fargo that transported it from the east coast to California. There were major explosions in ships and warehouses in Panama and California, and many explosions during construction. Fortunately, Nobel licensed his techniques starting in 1867, and this greatly reduced the accidents. See: http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/black-powder.html The explosives industry would not exist were it not for construction projects such as that, and later armies and navies using tons of explosives in warfare. The Transcontinental Railroad workers used more explosives on a daily basis than the U.S. Army did a few years earlier during the Civil War.
