The use of black powder and dynamite in mining make modern era possible

摘要

In this age, it's easy to think of explosives in terms of suicide bombers and terrorism, but in fact, explosives are considered by many historians the major factor in the beginning of the modern era. For, with explosives like black powder and dynamite, man was able to wrest enough metal from the earth to build infrastructure and equipment for the Industrial Age. Before explosives, mining relied mostly on manpower and fires to break the rock. While many mines used miners with picks and hammers to break the rock, some operations would build hot fires at the rock face, which would cause the rock to crack after being doused with water. These fissures would then be enlarged with wedges and hammers until the rock broke up. However, progress was slow, it used a lot of firewood, and even with rich ore deposits, metal was very expensive. Europe's economy couldn't expand until it had enough metal to produce the machines that would make the Industrial Revolution possible.