The Big Bang

Many of those involved - Roger Bacon, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, Robert Oppenheimer - are famed worldwide; others, such as C.F. Schonbein, William Bickford, Sir Frederick Abel and Charles E. Munroe, though less well known, also played crucial roles. Alongside their achievements, this book highlights the uses and impact of explosives in both war and terrorism, and in civil engineering, quarrying, mining, demolition, fireworks manufacture and shooting for sport. This book will be of interest to social, military and industrial historians, and will also appeal to general readers drawn by the fascinating story of one of the fundamental inventions in science history.