The advantage of dynamite was the high energy it delivered into the rocks to break them; its disadvantage was that it was dangerous to use. Melvin Cook, one of the great mining scientists and entrepreneurs of the 20th century, invented a range of safer, easier to handle, and easier to transport explosives based on ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. These explosives, which were less likely to explode spontaneously and delivered much more energy, soon displaced dynamite as the dominant explosive.
After graduating from Yale University in 1937 with a doctorate in physical chemistry, Cook joined DuPont and worked on commercial explosives until the United States entered World War II, when his research was directed toward military explosives. After the war he was appointed professor of metallurgy at the University of Utah, and for a time his research centered on flotation theory. In 1952, the U. S. Army set up an explosives research group at the university, naming Cook as its director. His subsequent research focused on the deflagrating explosive ammonium nitrate, which had been used for blasting rocks for several years.
Because of ammonium nitrate’s solubility in water, it had to be packed in a can for use, but Cook took an unusual approach that turned its solubility into an asset rather than a liability. He developed water-based explosives with a very high ammonium nitrate content. The ammonium nitrate-aluminum powder-water explosive he used at the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1956 proved to be safe and efficient, starting a change in explosives technology that led to mixing explosives on site and pumping them into holes of any inclination.
Like Nobel, Cook took a leading role in transferring this new technology to industry by establishing consulting and manufacturing companies. Throughout his distinguished career, he retained his strong scientific interests, publishing six books on explosives and more than 200 papers in leading journals. Khodorovskiy (2000) reviewed Cook’s life and achievements.
CONCLUSION
Again we emphasize that the people mentioned in this chapter are only a few of the many scientists who have applied scientific principles to industrial problems. Studies on size- reduction processes and machinery have been done in many different areas of the world by scientists representing many different entities, beginning with users of the technology and expanding to academia; to private, governmental, and commercial laboratories; and to machinery manufacturers. Without exception, the outstanding technical skills of these scientists and the dedication they applied to their tasks vastly improved the practice of humankind’s oldest technology and set the stage for countless improvements.
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
All rights reserved. Electronic edition published 2009.