Today I flicked on the television and a kids show came onto the screen. It was telling the audience about the Saxons, and it finished with saying that they invented Dynamite. At least that is what I heard before I switched onto the show that I was looking to watch. It struck me as odd at the time, to think that Dynamite was invented in the middle ages, it had always seemed to me to be a more modern invention. Eventually I decided to dig a little deeper and I discovered that it was actually discovered in the late 1800s, by Alfred Nobel, who is also the founder of the Nobel prizes. He had Dynamite patented in 1867, and despite having over 355 different patents, Dynamite was considered his most famous invention. I thought this was interesting because to my knowledge no population has referred to themselves as Saxons since the middle ages. So why would the television program tell it's audience that is was invented by Saxons, when it was invented many years after people had stopped referring to themselves as Saxons.
I think that I have worked out why, it is quite a tenuous link, however I will tell you and you can decide if you agree. Alfred Nobel was Swedish and he made his discovery whilst living in Germany. The Saxons were a major culture at the same time as the Vikings, and parts of what is now known as Germany, was many years ago known as Saxony. So I am thinking that, because modern day Scandinavian countries have close links with the race of people who were the original Vikings, and the discovery was made in a country that was previously occupied by the Saxons, the television show decided that since it was only kids watching it was acceptable to tell them that the Saxons invented Dynamite. It is either that or I totally misheard what was said on the television program this morning. Either way it gave me something to blog about, and a new found knowledge of the history of Dynamite!
I read up about Dynamite and Alfred Nobel on Wikipedia.
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