Who invented dynamite?

[Liberty]

From a historical standpoint, Marco Polo did not discover dynamite, nor did he introduce it to the West. The connection comes from a common historical mix-up involving two completely different explosive inventions separated by nearly six hundred years.

The confusion usually stems from swapping gunpowder with dynamite, which are entirely different technologies from different eras. Gunpowder was invented by Chinese Taoist alchemists during the Tang Dynasty in the ninth century and heavily utilized for warfare and fireworks by the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In contrast, dynamite was invented by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel in 1867. He stabilized highly volatile liquid nitroglycerin by mixing it with diatomaceous earth, creating a safe, controllable explosive for mining and construction.

Marco Polo traveled to China in the late thirteenth century during the reign of Kublai Khan. While popular folklore often credits him with bringing gunpowder, fireworks, or noodles back to Europe, modern historians note that Europe was already becoming aware of gunpowder independently. For instance, the English philosopher Roger Bacon recorded a formula for gunpowder in 1267, when Marco Polo was only about thirteen years old and still living in Venice. If Polo witnessed fireworks or early gunpowder weaponry in China, he curiously omitted detailed descriptions of them in his famous travelogue.

Ultimately, Marco Polo lived in the Middle Ages and was exposed to early gunpowder, whereas dynamite was not invented until the Industrial Era by Alfred Nobel, long after Marco Polo's time.