🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <IZwNThu00VQc0GOWF1@andrew.cmu.edu> kz08+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ken Zuroski) writes:
>Four pieces. Like roman candles. So
>old that I remember that there was some kind of oil oozing out of
>them.

Old dynamite sweats nitroglycerine.

>
>Whenever I am feeling depressed and thinking that life has done me a
>bad turn, I remember this incident and how lucky I was.  And I
>immediately am happy again, knowing that I am living when I don't
>deserve to be. Anyone out there know how likely it was for this stuff
>to explode?
>

Alfred Nobel made all of his money from his invention of dynamite, which
is a tame version of nitroglycerine.  Neat nitroglycerine is extremely
unstable, and it takes very little shock or heat to detonate it.  By
adsorbing it into dry clay Nobel made an explosive that was relatively
safe to transport.  While not recommended, I have heard that it can be
thrown around, stepped on, and beat on with usually little result. 
Dynamite typically needs a blasting cap to set it off.  I suspect that
if one end of the stick had been lit, rather than an open mass it might
have exploded. 

>We did a lot of stupid things--made gunpowder and pipe bombs, etc., but this
>one lives in my memory as being the worst.
>
>--ken z.

Jeff