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Long title | An Act to prohibit the manufacture, distribution, storage, use, and possession in time of war of explosives, providing regulations for the safe manufacture, distribution, storage, use, and possession of the same, and for other purposes. |
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Nicknames | Explosives Act of 1917 |
Enacted by | the 65th United States Congress |
Effective | November 14, 1917 |
Citations | |
Public law | Pub. L. 65–68 |
Statutes at Large | 40 Stat. 385 |
Codification | |
Titles amended | 50 U.S.C.: War and National Defense |
U.S.C. sections created | 50 U.S.C. ch. 8 § 121 et seq. |
Legislative history | |
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Federal Explosives Act of 1917 is a United States federal statutory law citing an incriminating act for the distribution, manufacture, possession, storage, and use of explosive material during the time of war. The Act of Congress authorizes the federal regulation of the distribution, manufacture, possession, storage, and use of incendiary material during wartime. [1]
The Act was passed by the 65th United States Congress and enacted into law by President Woodrow Wilson on October 6, 1917.
The United States Bureau of Mines governs the federal regulations for restrictive protocols with regards to explosive materials.
Federal Explosive License Classifications
In accordance with the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued Presidential Proclamation 1364 on April 6, 1917. [2] The presidential statement proclaimed national security protections regarding domestic alien enemies petitioning for aggressive terrorist tactics against the United States. [3]
The Sundry Civil Expenses Appropriations Act of 1918 applied the unlicensed enforcement prohibitions of the federal explosive act for iridium, palladium, platinum, and precious metal compounds. [4]
The Federal Explosives Act Amendment of 1941 appended the 1917 public law revitalizing the federal scope for the perils of World War II. [5] On July 25, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Senate Joint Resolution ceasing provisions of the Federal Explosives Act with the cessation of the European theatre of World War II and Pacific War. [6] [7] [8]
The 1917 Act was repealed by the enactment of Organized Crime Control Act on October 15, 1970. [9] [10]
In 1947, the Boy Scouts of America and Institute of Makers of Explosives established a safety awareness program for the disposal and identification of electric and non-electric blasting caps. [11]
Industrial Explosions of 1917
Ashton-under-Lyne munitions explosion | Gillespie Company Shell Loading Explosion |
Black Tom explosion | Halifax Explosion |
Eddystone explosion | Silvertown explosion |
Propellant Powder Mills of 18th & 19th Century America
19th Century Scientists of Combustible Chemistry & Materials
Frederick Abel | Joseph LeConte |
William Bickford | Alfred Nobel |
James Dewar | Christian Friedrich Schönbein |
Lammot du Pont I | Ascanio Sobrero |
Edward Charles Howard | Julius Wilbrand |
Anti-Radicalism Reforms of 19th & 20th Century America
Immigration Act of 1882 | Immigration Act of 1917 |
Immigration Act of 1891 | Immigration Act of 1918 |
Immigration Act of 1903 | Immigration Act of 1921 |
Immigration Act of 1907 | Immigration Act of 1924 |
Film Depictions of Anarchists' Movements in United States
J. Edgar (2011) |
No God, No Master (2012) |
Patriots Day (2016) |
Richard Jewell (2019) |
Manhunt: Unabomber (2017) & Deadly Games (2020) |
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents, and stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germany, and was patented in 1867. It rapidly gained wide-scale use as a more robust alternative to the traditional black powder explosives. It allows the use of nitroglycerine's favorable explosive properties while greatly reducing its risk of accidental detonation.
An explosive is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances.
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and carbon act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building pipelines, tunnels, and roads.
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours was a French-American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have been one of the richest and most prominent American families since the 19th century, with generations of influential businessmen, politicians and philanthropists. In 1807, du Pont was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia.
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device, or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately. However, when being specific, the term fuse describes a simple pyrotechnic initiating device, like the cord on a firecracker whereas the term fuze is used when referring to a more sophisticated ignition device incorporating mechanical and/or electronic components, such as a proximity fuze for an M107 artillery shell, magnetic or acoustic fuze on a sea mine, spring-loaded grenade fuze, pencil detonator, or anti-handling device.
The du Pont family or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its fortune in the gunpowder business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it expanded its wealth through the chemical industry and the automotive industry, with substantial interests in the DuPont company, General Motors, and various other corporations.
Thomas Coleman du Pont was an American engineer and politician, from Greenville, Delaware. He was President of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, and a member of the Republican Party who served parts of two terms as United States Senator from Delaware.
A Federal Firearms License (FFL) is a license in the United States that enables an individual or a company to engage in a business pertaining to the manufacture or importation of firearms and ammunition, or the interstate and intrastate sale of firearms. Holding an FFL to engage in certain such activities has been a legal requirement within the United States since the enactment of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The FFL is issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Enterprise liability is a legal doctrine under which individual entities can be held jointly liable for some action on the basis of being part of a shared enterprise. Enterprise liability is a form of secondary liability.
Alfred Irénée du Pont was an American industrialist, financier, philanthropist and a member of the influential Du Pont family.
Lammot du Pont I was a chemist and a key member of the du Pont family and its company in the mid-19th century.
Joliet Army Ammunition Plant (JOAAP, formerly known as the Joliet Arsenal) was a United States Army arsenal located in Will County, Illinois, near Elwood, Illinois, south of Joliet, Illinois. Opened in 1940 during World War II, the facility consisted of the Elwood Ordnance Plant (EOP) and the Kankakee Ordnance Works (KNK). In 1945, the two were deactivated and combined forming the Joliet Arsenal. The plant was reactivated for the Korean War and renamed Joliet Army Ammunition Plant during the Vietnam War. Production of TNT ended in 1976, and the major plant operations closed shortly after in the late 1970s. The facility briefly revived an automated load-assemble-pack (LAP) artillery shell operation that was managed by the Honeywell Corporation during the Reagan administration in the 1980s before it was finally closed.
Tovex is a water-gel explosive composed of ammonium nitrate and methylammonium nitrate that has several advantages over traditional dynamite, including lower toxicity and safer manufacture, transport, and storage. It has thus almost entirely replaced dynamite. There are numerous versions ranging from shearing charges to aluminized common blasting agents. Tovex is used by 80% of international oil companies for seismic exploration.
From 1802 to 1921, Eleutherian Mills was a gunpowder mill site used for the manufacture of explosives founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, which grew into the DuPont company. The name also refers to the house on the hill above the mills, which was the first du Pont family home in America. In 1957 the site became an outdoor museum when the Hagley Museum and Library was founded. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
A powder mill was a mill where gunpowder is made from sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal.
The Hazard Powder Company is a former American manufacturer of gunpowder and explosives. It was located in Hazardville within the town of Enfield, Connecticut.
California Powder Works was the first American explosive powder manufacturing company west of the Rocky Mountains. When the outbreak of the Civil War cut off supplies of gunpowder to California's mining and road-building industries, a local manufacturer was needed. Originally located near Santa Cruz, California, the company was incorporated in 1861 and began manufacturing gunpowder in May 1864. For 50 years, it was a major employer in the county, employing between 150 and 275 men. The powder works was located on a flat adjacent to the San Lorenzo River, three miles upstream of Santa Cruz.
Oriental Powder Company was a gunpowder manufacturer with mills located on the Presumpscot River in Gorham and Windham, Maine. The company was one of the four largest suppliers to Union forces through the American Civil War.
Henry du Pont was an American military officer and businessman from Delaware, and a member of the Du Pont family.
Atlas Powder Company was an American explosives and chemicals company. It was one of the two companies that emerged out of a court-ordered breakup of the explosives monopoly of Du Pont Powder Company, the explosives and gunpowder company founded by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours.