Dynamite is an explosive that was invented in 1866 by Swedish physicist Alfred Nobel and patented by him a year later. Nobel is most familiar to us today as the founder of the Nobel Prize. Many have observed the irony in the fact that he left his multimillion dollar fortune, made by the patenting and manufacture of dynamite and other inventions, to establish prizes awarded "to those, who during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."

Actually, Nobel invented dynamite to make the dangerous explosive, nitroglycerin, a safer substance. As a pacifist, he did not intend his invention to be used for war; indeed, there are indications he believed its use could bring war to an end more swiftly, or that the horrors of such an explosive would prevent warfare in the first place. Nobel also saw the need for explosives in mining, engineering, industry...