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Boom!
Boom!

Boom!

The Chemistry and History of Explosives

SCIENCE

288 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Trade Paper, $17.99 (CA $23.99) (US $17.99)

Publication Date: July 2017

ISBN 9781613738054

Rights: WOR

Chicago Review Press (Jul 2017)

eBook

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Overview

Black powder, the world’s first chemical explosive, was originally developed during the Tang dynasty in China.It was a crude mixture at first, but over time chemists discovered the optimum proportion of sulfur, charcoal, and nitrates, as well as the best way to mix them for a complete and powerful reaction. Author and chemistry buff Simon Quellen Field takes readers on a decades-long journey through the history of things that go boom, from the early days of black powder to today’s modern plastic explosives. Not just the who, when, and why, but also the how. How did Chinese alchemists come to create black powder? What accidents led to the discovery of high explosives? How do explosives actually work on a molecular scale? Boom! The Chemistry and History of Explosives reviews the original papers and patents written by the chemists who invented them, to shed light on their development, to explore the consequences of their use for good and ill, and to give the reader a basic understanding of the chemistry that makes them possible.
 

Reviews

“A detailed, comprehensive, impressively informative, and compelling study, Boom! is exceptionally well researched, written, organized and presented. . .” —Midwest Book Review


"Field sheds light on a subject you are not likely to get in school and for this he deserves to be applauded."—Nerd Rage News

Author Biography

Simon Quellen Field is the author of Culinary Reactions, Why There’s Antifreeze in Your Toothpaste, and Gonzo Gizmos, and is the creator of the popular website www.scitoys.com.