A Most Damnable Invention - Dynamites Nitrates and the Making of the Modern World by Stephen R. Bown (2005) Paperback

by Stephen R. Bown

no writing or highlighting. no tears. no water damage. no tears or pages missing. minor shelf wear only.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Microhistory, Chemistry, Technology, History Of Science

Paperback

First published September 28, 2005

About the author

www.stephenrbown.net
www.facebook.com/srbown

Winner of the 2024 Governor General's History Award for Popular Media: the Pierre Berton Award

I am a popular historian and author of 12 works of literary non-fiction on Canadian and international topics. I have also written more than 20 feature magazine articles highlighting lesser-known characters and events in Canadian history. I strive to make the past accessible, meaningful, and entertaining by applying a narrative and immersive style to my writing, which blends story-telling with factual depth.

My recent best-selling books The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire and Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada offer fresh perspectives on Canada's foundational stories by casting a broader lens on events of the day and highlighting characters who were not previously part of the dominant narrative. My work has been recognized for enriching public discourse and creating a lasting impact on how Canadians view and understand our shared history.

The Company won the 2021 National Business Book Award and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize. I also won the BC Book Prize for Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver, the Alberta Book Award for Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering's Great Voyage to Alaska and the William Mills Prize for Polar Books for White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic.

"Learning from the past isn't about judging the past by modern standards, or agreeing or disagreeing with the actions or decisions of historical characters. It is about understanding the challenges and struggles of past people within the context of their times, technology, education and infrastructure and state capacity to solve problems. In other words, it involves learning about and considering the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past in its full context, the way a visitor might explore a foreign country, open-minded to the differences from their own culture and experience.

Knowing how we came to be where we are as a nation - the choices made by people in the past - should be about understanding our origins, not glorifying or denigrating them. To deny knowledge and remain ignorant is an abrogation of responsibility that paves the way for future failure. Gaining knowledge of our shared history builds a sense of community and inoculates us against agenda-driven distortions of facts and events."

I live in a small town in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When I'm not writing I'm usually reading, mountain biking, hiking and camping in the summer, and downhill and cross country skiing in the winter.

Reviews

[Michael Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's in a name?

A name gives a person identity. But how he lives his life eventually gives more meaning than a name can.

"A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World" recounts in a concise yet very informative manner a brief history of explosives and the two people who revolutionized the modern explosives and fertilizer history: Alfred Nobel and Fritz Haber, respectively.

The first one, Alfred Nobel, was the Swedish chemist/inventor who discovered how to tame the explosive substance nitroglycerin and made it more stable and safer (dynamite). His innovation led to a boom, literally, in the explosives industry and Nobel became a rich man. A very rich man.

Dynamite (and other improvements in explosives like gelignite and cordite) made many engineering works possible, but also led to a more violent form of warfare. Though Nobel claimed that his invention is technically amoral, being neither good nor bad in itself, he was conscious of the lethal and devastating power of his inventions and resulted in his commitment that something good should come out of the profits of his creation.

Now, what would you do if you read about an obituary of yourself while you are STILL ALIVE and kicking? Strange. That's exactly what Alfred Nobel experienced. After the use and proliferation of explosives in the nineteenth century soared to astronomical levels after the invention of dynamite, Nobel became a very wealthy man. But earlier accidents in the development of dynamite and its more sinister uses dogged Nobel's reputation.

After one of his brothers died, a newspaper published an obituary. But it was a wrong obituary. The obituary presented Alfred's dead brother as Alfred HIMSELF and portrayed him in such a negative manner, as the man who invented the device that, though crucial in several engineering masterpieces, was also responsible for the increased destructive capability of war. Alfred Nobel was shocked. (Who wouldn't be?) He realized that his name will be forever be associated with the consequences of his inventions, good and bad. It was one factor that convinced Nobel to bestow almost all of his fortune to the annual awarding of prizes to people who have made the most significant achievements in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, economics, and peace. Yes, the money for the Nobel prizes comes form the fortune Alfred Nobel made through explosives. It can be argued that Nobel only bequeathed his wealth for philanthropy just to salvage his name but, nevertheless, give credit to the man for putting his money where his mouth was.

The other one, Fritz Haber, was the German chemist who discovered the method of synthesizing ammonia from the air, thus making it possible to extract nitrogen that is essential in the manufacture of explosives-and fertilizers, without having to scrounge for harder-to-find saltpeter and nitrates that are derived from dried animal excrement. (No shit, this is true.)

Alfred Nobel is widely-known, and deservedly so, for his invention of dynamite and the Nobel prizes. But why is Fritz Haber, whose work was equally, if not more, significant, lesser-known? Haber's opus resulted in the exponential increase in food production, which also resulted in the rapid increase of the human population. (Whether that is good or bad is a good subject for debate, but is irrelevant for this topic.) So why is Haber obscure today, maybe only easily recognized in chemistry circles? It has to do with Haber's other, darker, work as a chemist.

During the First World War from 1914 to 1918, Haber's work on synthetic nitrogen allowed his native country Germany to manufacture explosives and fertilizers for food production without depending on foreign sources of nitrates, delaying the end of the war. But Haber was also involved in the development of deadly poison gas that Germany introduced on a massive scale in the First World War. Though Haber maintained that chemical weapons were no different from the damage done by bullets and bombs (quite logical; bullets and bombs do kill, wound, and main), Germany's use of chemical weapons only earned it worldwide condemnation. (It must be said that Britain and France also used poison gas later in the war.)

Ironically, but also deservedly, Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1919, not for his work on poison gas, but for his earlier, more significant work on synthetic nitrogen. But such was the opprobrium from the use of poison gas that many scientists condemned the award and many boycotted the awarding. (The award was even given the next year, separate from the parallel awardees and with less fanfare.)

Two persons, two inventions, two legacies. One invented a destructive thing with good and bad uses, but left a great legacy for the human search for knowledge and peace; the other also devised a breakthrough technology with profound consequences for the world, but is today tainted with his less palatable work.

So what's in a name? It is hard to build a good one, but easier for it to lose with just one or two massive lapses in judgment. But anyone can be a saint, and even a sinner can be redeemed and become one.

[Scott Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating review of the development of Nitrates for agriculture, construction and warfare.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essential role of nitrogen - as a fertilizer to help grow our food and as an explosive to blow things up - is a fascinating story of technology. The old source of fixed nitrogen (organic deposits) was replaced by the work of Haber and Bosch in synthesizing ammonia production from the atmosphere in the first half of the 20th, while gunpowder fell by the wayside, due to Alfred Nobel’s inventions of high explosives in the second half of the 19th century. The Haber-Bosch process made nitrogen use as fertilizer and explosives available on a grand scale, and “the making of the modern world” in this book’s subtitle is no exaggeration of the impact of these technologies. Dynamite proved to be essential not only in warfare, but in civil engineering, mining and construction, helping build many grand infrastructure projects that would otherwise have been impossible.

If you are OK with your history being broad and not deep, this book hits the highlights of those stories. There are other good books that go into more details in certain areas (I recommend Jack Kelly’s “Gunpowder” for the story of the original explosive, and Thomas Hager’s “The Alchemy of Air” for the Haber-Bosch story) but this one is a good place to start and get the big picture.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The corollary to works like Oppenheimer and When We Cease to Understand the World. Incredible look at how the material world is vital to our history and future, with each scientific discovery unleashing its own Pandora’s box of repercussions on the world.

[Sameer Taneja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved reading this book. A brilliant account of the journey from Chinese gunpowder to dynamite and the origins of the arms industry. The end of the book however, becomes a strong defense of the work of Fritz Haber, which was a bit of a departure from the focus of the book Alfred Nobel.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Нобеловата награда е учредена според завещанието на Алфред Нобел - един от най-богатите хора в Европа края на 19 в., който е натрупал своето състояние благодарение на своето изобретение: динамита.

Малко хора знаят това, а още по-малко хора знаят, че значителна част от усилията на човечеството по време на индустриалната епоха са насочени към сдобиване с нитрати в големи количества за двете основни дейности, за които те се използват: земеделско наторяване и направа на експлозиви и барут и навлизането на нововъведенията в тези области значително допринася, а в някои случаи направо е директна причина, за прогресът в много области на обществото и икономиката.

Всичко започва с навлизането на първите огнестрелни оръжия, ползващи черен барут, които макар да са опасни (избухвали са) и скъпи, и да отстъпват значително на лъкове и арбалети както по скорострелност така и по далекобойност, притежават несъмненото предимство да позволят на обикновен селянин-войник след 1-2 седмично обучение да повали отдалеч благородник-рицар, дал цяло състояние за броня и боен кон и посветил живота си на обучение в бойното дело. Последвалата от това централизация на властта в европейските държави и практическото западане на феодалната система дава началото на ренесанса и неспирната от тогава надпревара на държави и хора по пътя на индустриализацията и прогреса.

Битката с природата, физиката и другите държави за източници на нитрати - селитра, събирана от оборите в Европа, после в Индия, копана като гуано в Латинска Америка и накрая произвеждана по химичен път е брутална, буквално за оцеляване (без селитра няма барут и се губят войни, няма наторяване и има глад) и обуславя духа на цялата епоха.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short quick read for me. It was a bit of a disappointment. it felt like a bunch of separate stories glued together. (E.g., the influence of nitrates on the India trade, Nobel's life work, the establishment of the Nobel prize, and Haber's work on the fixation of nitrogen.) The author relied entirely on secondary sources, and resorts to quoting them extensively. This leaves me thinking I should just go read Keegan and cut out the middleman. There was minimal chemistry detail and I didn't feel like I was learning any science.

The book had some redeeming features. I hadn't ever focused on just how scarce the raw material for gunpowder was before the 19th century, and therefore how much a priority it was for governments to secure. The medieval Europeans probably couldn't have deployed a large force with gunpowder weapons; it was only cheap Indian saltpeter supplies that allowed the armies of the 17th and 18th century.

The book also brought home to me something I had never properly understood before, which was the incredible human toll of extractive industry until the last few decades. Nitrate mining in the 19th century was truly horrible; workers were lured by false pretenses into horrific conditions on small Pacific islands, shovelling toxic wastes into ships.

[Russell Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A micro-history revolving around the impact of two men - Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, and Fritz Haber, whose process for creating ammonia allowed the artificial production of the nitrates that are used in explosives and fertilizers. Haber's process extended the First World War by a number of years, but also allowed for the world's population growth as it allowed for greater quantities of food to be grown through the use of artificial fertilizers.

As with all micro-histories, the book gets a little myopic as to the role that the subject had on everything else, but there are interesting tidbits of info tied in as well - from how the search for guano led to the US having territories in the south Pacific to the story of early patent issues in the US.

An enjoyable book.

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The impact of nitrates on the world. This book mostly focuses on Alfred Nobel and the development of dynamite and other explosives. The brief description of Frietz Haber, a famous German chemist, did a good job detailing his role in developing the process for fixing nitrogen and more notoriously in the development of chemical warfare in WWI. The story of Haber however is limited to a single chapter. Those interested in Haber should read Hitler's scientists for a more detail discusion. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dynamites and nitrates have significantly impacted both the military and modern world. This book traces the history of dynamites and nitrates, including looking at the life of Alfred Nobel (he of the Nobel prizes), the geopolitical impact and struggle of explosives, and the engineering and farming impact of mass development possible through nitrates. This packs a lot of information into its pages while remaining eminently readable. The micro-historical stories and moments described in these pages make for a most interesting read.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

A solid overview of an interesting subject: the way nitrates have contributed to some of humankinds' worst behaviors (through TNT and other explosives) and best ones (through nitrogen fertilizers). It includes the mesmerizing story of Fritz Haber, who figured out how to create a process for making nitrogen usable, but in the process helped develop the poison gas used in the concentration camps, which kept him from being honored despite having won the Nobel Prize.

[Michael Pryor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful excursion into a much neglected part of modern life. Who would have thought that guano was so important in the lead up to WW1?

[Antony Arvind · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Book - Informative and thought provoking

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough and historical book. I like it so far...