English Newspaper (9) Safe explosions

While Alfred Nobel is famous for creating prestigious prizes, he made his fortune by creating dynamite. And by 'create' it might be better to say, 'accidentally did not explode'.

雖然阿爾弗雷德·諾貝爾因創造著名獎項而聞名，但他卻透過製造炸藥發家致富。通過“創造”，可能更好的說法是“意外地沒有爆炸”。

Dynamite is an explosive used in construction to destroy hardened structures so the ground can be cleared for development. It is also tragically used as a weapon of war. But it would not have been discovered without Alfred Nobel’s chance encounter.

炸藥是一種建築用炸藥，用於摧毀硬化結構，以便清理地面以進行開發。它也悲慘地被用作戰爭武器。但如果沒有阿爾弗雷德·諾貝爾的偶然相遇，它就不會被發現。

In 1847 the chemical nitroglycerin was created, which could explode with more power than the black powder that was used at the time. One problem, however, was that it was incredibly volatile – just shaking or hitting a bottle of pure nitroglycerin could lead to a devastating explosion. While people tried to use it for blasting tunnels and similar, the accidental explosions were so bad that transporting liquid nitroglycerin had to be banned.

1847年，化學物質硝化甘油誕生，其爆炸威力比當時使用的黑火藥更大。然而，一個問題是它非常不穩定——僅僅搖晃或撞擊一瓶純硝化甘油就可能導致毀滅性的爆炸。當人們試圖用它來爆破隧道和類似的東西時，意外爆炸非常嚴重，以至於不得不禁止運輸液體硝化甘油。

Nobel, however, wanted to try and make nitroglycerin practical. He experimented with many devices, such as blasting caps and fuses that could set off the liquid at a safe distance, but the instability remained a problem. One explosive accident even tragically killed Nobel’s brother, but he remained dedicated to his work.

然而，諾貝爾想嘗試使硝化甘油變得實用。他嘗試了許多裝置，例如可以在安全距離引爆液體的雷管和保險絲，但不穩定性仍然是一個問題。一次爆炸事故甚至使諾貝爾的兄弟不幸喪生，但他仍然致力於他的工作。

One day, while transporting nitroglycerin, a can of special clay called Kieselguhr spilt its contents onto the chemical. Nobel looked at the end result, and discovered that the nitroglycerin had been soaked up completely by the powder. In this form, the chemical was resistant to shaking and shocks, and Nobel realised he could package this soaked version of nitroglycerin, and put a fuse on it. His final product was called 'dynamite', based on the Greek word dynamis, which means 'power'.

有一天，在運送硝化甘油時，一罐名為矽藻土的特殊黏土將其內容物濺到了化學物質上。諾貝爾查看了最終的結果，發現硝化甘油已經被粉末完全吸收了。在這種形式下，這種化學物質可以抵抗震動和衝擊，諾貝爾意識到他可以包裝這種浸泡過的硝化甘油，並在上面放上保險絲。他的最終產品被稱為“炸藥”，源自希臘語“dynamis”，意思是“力量”。

Dynamite was patented in 1867. It took 20 years to make an explosive safe to use, and even then, it might have only been possible because the right thing fell at the right time.

炸藥於 1867 年獲得專利。我們花了 20 年的時間製造出可以安全使用的炸藥，即便如此，這也可能只是因為正確的東西在正確的時間落下。

Vocabulary

hardened (adj) 變硬

tragically (adv) 悲慘地

practical (adj) 實際的

fuse (n) 導火索

instability (n) 不穩定

clay (n) 陶土

新聞來源: https://student.thestandard.com.hk/text/juniorstandard/article/stories/813

中文翻譯: 晚晚有魚