WEAPON INVENTIONS

WHO INVNTED LANDMINES?

Landmines date back to 13^th century when Song Dynasty of Chinese was fighting against the Mongols to save a city in the Southern China. The records of 14^th century describe the use of cannonball shells of cast iron which were filled with gunpowder. The literature of mid 14^th century when Yuan Dynasty was falling and Ming Dynasty was emerging records of cast iron made mines, that were spherical in shape and they had magic gunpowder, blinding and burning gunpowder or poison gunpowder filled in it as per the requirement.

The culture that made use of the landmines invented it when they required it. In Europe, Pedro Navarro invented land mines in the early 1500s. The designs made by Samuel Zimmerman of Germany were realized in 1600.

The landmines invented by the Chinese were lit simultaneously and created a bomb effect when they exploded below the soldier’s feet. The landmines that were invented later were easy to operate, the packing of the different composition of powder was made more effective and the explosion created was greater. The explosions were made to make more destruction and the landmines exploded hot showers of metals and sharp fragments in the air. These sharp fragments were as quick as bullets and caused a great impact of destruction to anyone whom it hit.

The statistics show that there are 110 million anti- personnel mines and 100 million in stock all over the world.

WHO INVENTED DYNAMITE?

Dynamite was invented in 1866 by a Swedish inventor, chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel.  In 1860 Alfred started experimenting with nitroglycerine. In 1867, Alfred Nobel got U. S. patent for dynamite. Alfred was born on 21^st October in the year 1833 in Stockholm of Sweden. He was the third son of Immanuel and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. When he was just nine, his family shifted to Russia. He proudly acclaimed of himself as the world citizen as he stayed in many countries. Alfred’s travels made him fluent in five languages. His interest in literature forced him to write novels, poetry and plays in his free time. When he was 18, he went to the U. S. to study chemistry for four years.

When he invented dynamite in 1866, many construction and mining companies and the military placed huge orders for this safe explosive. This brought a lot of money to him. He had many establishments to his name. In 1865 Alfred, established Alfred Nobel & Co. in Germany, in the year1866 United States Blasting Oil Company in the U. S. and the Societe general pour la fabrication de la dynamite in Paris, France in 1870.

In his last will Nobel laid the foundation of Nobel Prize in 1895. He died in the year 1896 leaving behind a heavy amount of $ 9, 00,000 million for the established prize fund. Since 1901 many people in the field of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace work and economics have been honored with this prize.

WHO INVENTED GUN POWDER?

Gunpowder commonly known as black powder is made of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal. The earliest records mention the record of gunpowder in 142 A. D. Though tried, tested and perfected over the time it is believed to have been invented by Chinese around 11^th and 12^th century. The strength of gunpowder used earlier was not that catastrophic as it is today, it was because of the amount of the saltpeter which was 50% earlier and now is 75%. The Chinese first used the explosive in the fireworks, then in the wars and then the combination was used in primitive rockets. The Chinese tried to keep the gunpowder a secret to themselves but during the war of Song Dynasty the explosive was made known to Islamic and Roman rulers. And this is how it finally spread to the world.

Historians believe that Mongols who conquered both India and China were the ones who brought the recipe of gunpowder to India in the 12^th century. Soon the knowledge of gunpowder reached Europe through the silk route and was first used by them in 1346 in the Battle of Crecy.

Both the Chinese and the European inventors invented the cannon which used gunpowder to shoot heavy iron balls in the 13^th century.

The gunpowder works with the touch of fire and was used in cannons and guns but it could not make blasts for which the world waited for 500 years till the invention of nitroglycerine.