The solution he devised was a small wooden detonator with a black powder charge that was placed in a metal container full of nitroglycerin. "Nitroglycerin was a much more powerful explosive, but it was so unstable that it could not be handled with any degree of safety.” Nobel built a small nitroglycerin factory to supply his experiments and set to work. “At the time, the only dependable explosive for use in mines was black powder, a form of gunpowder,” the encyclopedia writes. In the early 1860s, having completed his education, he began experimenting with explosives. He had a long interest in the use of explosives, the encyclopedia writes, influenced by the family business selling explosive mines and other equipment. A few years later, though, Nobel thought nitroglycerin’s explosive tendencies could be tamed.Īccording to Encyclopedia Britannica, Nobel studied at Pelouze’s lab during a brief stint in Paris while he was studying chemistry. The oil this produced was incredibly explosive, writes Nobel biographer Kenne Fant, and Sobrero considered it too destructive and volatile to have any practical uses. It was during his time with Peleuze, in the mid-1840s, that he came up with a substance he initially called “pyroglycerine,” made by adding glycerol to a mix of nitric and sulfuric acids. Pelouze in Paris, according to the Nobel Prize website. Sobrero, like Nobel, was a chemist who studied with professor J.T. He just didn’t see any use for it-even though it became, in the hands of Alfred Nobel-yes, that Nobel-the active ingredient in dynamite. In comparison to this, the Karfík´s style represents a clear concept as to the production and complementary services.Ascanio Sobrero, born on this day in 1812, invented nitroglycerin. His factories logically followed production requirements but the different local conditions, continual transformation and development in building construction have negatively marked the clarity of urban setting. What we find interesting on the former Nobel factories is the fact that in spite of building factories all over the world Nobel did not use a unified urban scheme or standardized architectural design. This was a model that had been taken over from the functioning model of the Bata´s shoe factories. Through construction of the new factory and the connected housing estates Vistra (Mierová kolónia) and White Cross (Biely kríž) Karfík brought not only modern industrial architecture but a quality standard of living as well. He is the author of the architectural design of Závod mieru (The Piece Plant). The last upturn of production and the related urban and architectural development are linked with the arrival of Professor Vladimír Karfík to Slovakia. Most structures that have been preserved are from the period of the Second World War. The both world wars meant a prosperous time for the factory. There were left only few of the structures built by Pittel and Brausewette, an Austrian company based in Bratislava at that time. Barely anything has been left out of the oldest structures designed by the Feiglers, a notable Bratislava family of master builders. Its present state only very vaguely indicates that it is a follower of one of the most important Austro Hungarian explosive factories. Unlike the other more than ten Nobel dynamite factories throughout Europe, the Bratislava factory went through radical change in its urban architectural setting. They provided accommodation for the factory workers. The sites of several neighbouring residential districts belong to the main area as well. The area of the former factory for artificial fibres known as Závod mieru (The Piece Plant 1947-1951) is separated by a road (Vajnorské St.) from the main area. Today the plan called Istrochem previously known as the Chemical Plant of Juraj Dimitrov, located in north-east part of the city of Bratislava known as The New City, has overcome a complicated development since its establishment.Īpart from the production plant, the former dynamite and other explosives producing factory, based in 1873 by a Swede Alfred Nobel, other neighbouring sites belong to the historically developing region.
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