Nobel Dynamite Trust

There were some major exceptions to the rule that munitions were marginal to industrial research, as exemplified by DuPont and the Nobel-Dynamite Trust and its international cartel sequel of blasting and propellant explosives companies. But the profitable core of their business lay in civilian explosives, notably dynamite and blasting gelatine. DuPont s products profile in 1905 was as follows ... 

In 1867, the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel discovered that nitroglycerin behaved better when absorbed on di-atomaceous earth, a crumbly rock, giving an explosive mixture that Nobel called dynamite. Part of the wealth he made from his explosive factories was left in trust to establish the Nobel Prizes. Although explosives are often associated in people s minds with war, they do have many peacetime uses, including road building, mining, and demolition (Figure 9.13). 

---