Thursday, January 02, 2020

CHEMISTRY
Want to Crack Open a Safe? Try Nitroglycerine
January 1856

January 2, 2020
 
Credit: Scientific American


“Today the safe-breaker no longer requires those beautifully fashioned, delicate yet powerful tools which were formerly both the admiration and the despair of the safe manufacturer. For the introduction of nitroglycerine, ‘soup’ in technical parlance, has not only obviated onerous labor, but has again enabled the safe-cracking industry to gain a step on the safe-making one. The modern ‘yeggman,’ however, is often an inartistic, untidy workman, for it frequently happens that when the door suddenly parts company with the safe it takes the front of the building with it. The bombardment of the surrounding territory with portions of the Farmers’ National Bank seldom fails to rouse from slumber even the soundly-sleeping tillers of the soil.”






—Scientific American, January 1856



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