author
George M. Mowbray
An early explosives chemist and writer, he offered a rare firsthand look at how nitro-glycerin was made and used in major engineering work such as the Hoosac Tunnel. His surviving work is compact, practical, and full of the uneasy fascination that surrounded new industrial technology in the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
George M. Mowbray is known for writing about nitro-glycerin at a time when the material was still new, dangerous, and poorly understood. His best-known book, Tri-Nitro-Glycerin: As Applied in the Hoosac Tunnel, Submarine Blasting, Etc., draws on his direct experience with explosives work and explains both the chemistry and the practical challenges of handling it.
Reference sources identify him as an American chemist associated with North Adams, Massachusetts, and with the manufacture of nitro-glycerin for the Hoosac Tunnel project. Britannica credits him as an important figure in the early American explosives industry, and library records show that his work was published in the 1870s.
For modern readers, Mowbray is interesting not just as a technical author, but as a witness to a moment when science, industry, and risk were tightly bound together. His writing captures the confidence and danger of an era that was pushing engineering forward with powerful new tools.