The First Boom Stick

Despite Nobel’s best efforts, his dynamite was used as a weapon nearly as often (if not more so) as it was for construction. There was little doubt that it was effective in this regard, but was limited by the strength of the arm that threw it. And so the Dynamite Cannon was born. In 1883 the original prototype was demonstrated by D.M. Medford in Chicago with lackluster effect. However, Edmund Zalinsky, a one-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, happened to be at t