- wuphysics87 ( @wuphysics87@lemmy.ml ) 36•2 months ago
Alfred Nobel, the originator of the Nobel prize, invented dynamite believing mutually assured destruction would end war.
- napoleonsdumbcousin ( @napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.de ) 28•2 months ago
Your comment is only technically correct, so I am gonna add to that:
Alfred Nobel did invent dynamite and was also a believer in mutually assured destruction, BUT: those two facts are not directly connected.
Dynamite in itself was not intended for warfare, but for mining. It was still relatively unstable so not really suited for warfare. (TNT, which came around 1900, solved that problem.)
Nobel did invent smokeless powder for warfare and he transformed Bofors into an arms manufacturing company though.
https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-thoughts-about-war-and-peace/
- ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠 ( @Nemo@midwest.social ) 17•2 months ago
Putting chili directly in the bag of Fritos.
- tetris11 ( @tetris11@lemmy.ml ) 2•2 months ago
Chocalate in peanut-butter, while we’re at it
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 16•2 months ago
Fritz Haber invented chlorine gas specifically for Germany in ww1. Clara Immerwahr, who had married him and was also a scientist, committed suicide as a result.
He also invented artifical fertilizer, which is responsible for the population boom of the 20th century. The jury is still out on that one.
- tetris11 ( @tetris11@lemmy.ml ) 6•2 months ago
Immerwahr
“always true”
One of the best surnames I’ve seen since John B Goodenough
- bradorsomething ( @bradorsomething@ttrpg.network ) 16•2 months ago
Leaded gasoline, CFC’s as a propellant… generally Thomas Midgely, Jr.
- Echo Dot ( @echodot@feddit.uk ) 12•2 months ago
It’s not quite the same since there was no reason to believe CFCs would be dangerous. They checked for toxicity to humans and that was about it. It never occurred to anyone to simulate interactions with atmospheric particles, meteorological science was almost non-existent back then, it was essentially just limited to weather forecasting.
It never occurred anyone to worry to about what might happen 100+ years in the future.
But yeah he had absolutely no excuse for lead in gasoline, as far back as the Romans we knew lead was toxic.
- neidu2 ( @neidu2@feddit.nl ) 1•2 months ago