PETN - Plastic & Nuclear Explosives & Heart Medicine:

PETN is Pentaerythritol tetranitrate  aka PENTA or Penthrite - and is used in harpoon grenades to more quickly terminate the giant whales.

It is a very stable explosive not much affected by water that is also used to produce a type of "plastic explosive". - Like nitroglycerin it is also used as a heart medication that expands blood vessels by releasing nitric oxide into the body.

"Zut alors" - here's another fine instance of a 'thing' (PENTA) functioning as both naughty or nice .. explosive or life-saving medication. 

Early whaling Harpoon cannons were black powder - later nitro - the earliest harpoon iterations were of course hand thrown.

(I don't consider whale hunting for food to be morally any different to other forms of hunting ... however industrial scale commercial slaughter of endangered species is plain stupid. - Of course there are plenty of greedy plain-stupid people around.)

Sealing & Whaling was what brought early Europeans down to New Zealand and our stormy antarctic cold 'Roaring Forties' oceans.

Early Greener Bow-Swivel Harpoon Gun.

Radio NZ has recently serialized 'THOR'S TALE' by Janice Marriott about whaling on South Georgia Island and Shackleton's 1914-17  ill fated 'Endurance' expedition to Antarctica.

 - Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack on South Georgia in January 1922 when attempting a further Antarctic journey .. he is buried there.

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Penta based explosives are difficult to detect with dogs because it doesn't readily vaporize into the air much at all. It was first patented in Germany in 1894 and served them well through both world Wars. It is classed as a High Brisance Secondary Explosive

PETN is the explosive of choice used in EBW Exploding Bridgewire Detonators .. used to initiate plutonium core  NUCLEAR WEAPON WARHEADS.

 It keeps exotic company, as the bridgewire is usually made of gold, platinum - or gold/platinum alloys can also be used. The wires vaporise under high voltage producing the high temperature shock wave that starts the PETN explosive that starts the nuclear fusion or fission.

18 kilometer (11 mile) high Nagasaki Mushroom Cloud.

Marty K.

2018 Doomsday Clock has Moved To 2 Minutes To Midnight Under Donnie Trump.

 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board