It relies only on the presence of a single, suitable explosive material and enough energy to stimulate that breakdown. For instance, Octanitrocubane a recently developed US Army explosive releases a great deal of energy when its highly strained carbon-carbon bonds break apart in response to a shockwave. Because high explosives do not require oxygen or any other co-reactant , they break down much more rapidly and are much more versatile than combustible materials.
High explosives generally cannot be detonated by heat alone and so require a detonator to deliver either a shock wave or an electric charge. The first high explosive, nitroglycerine, was packaged with its detonator as dynamite. Dynamite is detonated by lighting a simple cord fuse, which carries a flame to a small cap of low explosive black powder; the ignition of the black powder causes a shockwave to propagate through the nitroglycerine—initiating detonation.
Other high explosives of note:. Notoriously volatile and difficult to handle. TNT is extremely easy to handle in the manufacturing process; it was widely used throughout World War I. Firebombs combine high explosive and incendiary effects. This inspired Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in to seek a safe way to package nitroglycerin.
In the mids, he succeeded in mixing it with an inert absorbent material. His invention was called dynamite. Dynamite replaced gunpowder as the most widely used explosive aside from military uses of gunpowder. But Nobel continued experimenting with explosives and in , invented a gelatinous dynamite, an explosive jelly. It was more powerful and even a little safer than the dynamite he had invented nine years earlier.
The addition of ammonium nitrate to dynamite further decreased the chances of accidental explosions. It also made it cheaper to manufacture. These and other inventions made Nobel very wealthy. Although the explosives he developed and manufactured were used for peaceful purposes, they also greatly increased the destructiveness of warfare.
When he died, Nobel used the fortune he made from dynamite and other inventions to establish the Nobel prizes, which were originally awarded for significant accomplishment in the areas of medicine, chemistry , physics , and peace. It is designed to stimulate blood flow to sustain men who report having trouble keeping erections with a condom. The goal is to encourage safer sex by convincing those same men to stick with condoms.
The condom first made news in , when it was under development by Futura and consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser. That deal has since fallen apart. Read one patent here. Currently, the condom is available to residents of Belgium and The Netherlands.
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