It’s funny how the little things, like a 1 ton charge of explosives placed under a Moscow hotel to destroy it, in the event of Hitler rolling into town, can just slip your mind for 60 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4672185.stm
BTW–this hotel is smoke-free. Or else.
Don’t I recall something about old dynamite being highly sensitive, like nitro?
Oh, and that reminds me, must go check the basement. :eek:
I remember the same thing…but the only source I have is an old McGuyver episode.
It’s always a mistake to get your knowledge from the movies, but that bit in the film Sorceror (Itself a remake of Wages of Fear) about the nitroglycerine draining out of old untouched TNT unless it’s “turned” on a regular basis has the “ring of truth” to it.
If you haven’t seen the film, it concerns several cases of TNT that hadn’t been turned in a long time, with pools of nitroglycerine in the wrapping at the base. The guy who reaches in to feel it withdraws a wet hand with liquid drops on it, and gazez in horror. He shakes his hand off carefully, and the droplets make little “cracking” noises when they hit the ground and explode from the shock. The rest of the film involves very carefully packing the boxes in shockproof circumstances and driving it cross country. From what I’ve read, it is true that the nitro can drain out of the TNT sticks, leaving behind inert clay which originally acted to prevent the nitroglycerine from exploding.
No way would I stay in this hotel.
That’s nothing. You should see what I find in my couch cushions.
This was TNT, not dynamite. TNT sweats, but the result is a low explosive and fire hazard, not a disaster waiting to happen. My major concern would be the levels of TNT contamination in the hotel. TNT is highly toxic to just about everything except a few species of plant.
Depends on the type of dynamite is. Some are essentially nitro combined with sawdust, which becomes more unstable over time due to the nitro leeching out and then crystallizing. The cristallized nitro is what makes it so dangerous. If the old sticks are jostled enough they’ll create friction and ignite the rest of the nitro.
The stuff found under the hotel must have been the other kind–black powder. This type would have simply disintigrated having been left sitting for so long. Even if the stuff was still usable, there’s no way it would go off by itself.
If kept dry, black powder doesn’t disintigrate. I know several people that have shot the contents of 100 year-old + cans of BP with no problems and no discernable loss of power.
This was WW2 vintage Russian explosive.
No telling what it was, nor what it was made of.
BBCNews is calling it TNT. The Russians used TNT, RDX and several others during the war. In any case, the stuff doesn’t sweat nitro, which is what some of the earlier posters were worrying about. 
Good. 'Cause I watch Lost, and if there’s one thing we learned in the season finale, it’s that you don’t want to find a bunch of old dynamite. 
Finding it isn’t the problem. Waving it around when you are a red shirt is!
But he thought he was starring in his own show.
In Soviet Union, Dynamite waves you!
He was. It just got cancelled.
They’re also saying it’s the Moskva, while showing a picture of the Baltika.
Good catch!
Quite right. Forgot to mention that.
No, that’s the Moskva all right (it’s the building pictured on the label of Stolichnaya vodka). The word on top of the building is an ad for Baltika beer.
Akh, spasibo.