Nitroglycerin known as nitroglycerine, nitro, glyceryl trinitrate, or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, oily, explosive liquid most produced by nitrating glycerol with white fuming nitric acid under conditions appropriate to the formation of the nitric acid ester. Chemically, the substance is an organic nitrate compound rather than a nitro compound, yet the traditional name is retained. Invented in 1847, nitroglycerin has been used as an active ingredient in the manufacture of explosives dynamite, as such it is employed in the construction and mining industries. Since the 1880s, it has been used by the military as an active ingredient, a gelatinizer for nitrocellulose, in some solid propellants, such as cordite and ballistite. Nitroglycerin is a major component in double-based smokeless gunpowders used by reloaders. Combined with nitrocellulose, hundreds of powder combinations are used by rifle and shotgun reloaders. In medicine for over 130 years, nitroglycerin has been used as a potent vasodilator to treat heart conditions, such as angina pectoris and chronic heart failure.

Though it was known that these beneficial effects are due to nitroglycerin being converted to nitric oxide, a potent venodilator, the enzyme for this conversion was not discovered to be mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase until 2002. Nitroglycerin is available in sublingual tablets, sprays and patches. Nitroglycerin was the first practical explosive produced, stronger than black powder, it was first synthesized by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, working under Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the University of Turin. Sobrero called his discovery pyroglycerine and warned vigorously against its use as an explosive. Nitroglycerin was adopted as a commercially useful explosive by Alfred Nobel, who experimented with safer ways to handle the dangerous compound after his younger brother, Emil Oskar Nobel, several factory workers were killed in an explosion at the Nobels' armaments factory in 1864 in Heleneborg, Sweden. One year Nobel founded Alfred Nobel and Company in Germany and built an isolated factory in the Krümmel hills of Geesthacht near Hamburg.

This business exported a liquid combination of nitroglycerin and gunpowder called "Blasting Oil", but this was unstable and difficult to handle, as evidenced in numerous catastrophes. The buildings of the Krümmel factory were destroyed twice. In April 1866, three crates of nitroglycerin were shipped to California for the Central Pacific Railroad, which planned to experiment with it as a blasting explosive to expedite the construction of the 1,659-foot-long Summit Tunnel through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One of the crates exploded, destroying a Wells Fargo company office in San Francisco and killing 15 people; this led to a complete ban on the transportation of liquid nitroglycerin in California. The on-site manufacture of nitroglycerin was thus required for the remaining hard-rock drilling and blasting required for the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in North America. Liquid nitroglycerin was banned elsewhere, as well, these legal restrictions led to Alfred Nobel and his company's developing dynamite in 1867.

This was made by mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth found in the Krümmel hills. Similar mixtures, such as "dualine", "lithofracteur", "gelignite", were formed by mixing nitroglycerin with other inert absorbents, many combinations were tried by other companies in attempts to get around Nobel's held patents for dynamite. Dynamite mixtures containing nitrocellulose, which increases the viscosity of the mix, are known as "gelatins". Following the discovery that amyl nitrite helped alleviate chest pain, the physician William Murrell experimented with the use of nitroglycerin to alleviate angina pectoris and to reduce the blood pressure, he began treating his patients with small diluted doses of nitroglycerin in 1878, this treatment was soon adopted into widespread use after Murrell published his results in the journal The Lancet in 1879. A few months before his death in 1896, Alfred Nobel was prescribed nitroglycerin for this heart condition, writing to a friend: "Isn't it the irony of fate that I have been prescribed nitro-glycerin, to be taken internally!

They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist and the public." The medical establishment used the name "glyceryl trinitrate" for the same reason. Large quantities of nitroglycerin were manufactured during World War I and World War II for use as military propellants and in military engineering work. During World War I, HM Factory, the largest propellant factory in Britain, produced about 800 tonnes of cordite RDB per week; this amount required at least 336 tonnes of nitroglycerin per week. The Royal Navy had its own factory at the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath, in Dorset, England. A large cordite factory was built in Canada during World War I; the Canadian Explosives Limited cordite factory at Nobel, was designed to produce 1,500,000 lb of cordite per month, requiring about 286 tonnes of nitroglycerin per month. In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a contact explosive, with physical shock causing it to explode, it degrades over time to more unstable forms; this makes nitroglycerin dangerous to transport or use.

In its undiluted form, it is one of the world's most powerful explosives, comparable to the more developed RDX and PETN. Early in its history, liquid nitroglycerin was found to be "desensitized" by cooling it to about 5 to 10 °C. At this temperatu

The Kommando Landstreitkräfte was the Army staff — and the Army command of the National People's Army Land Forces of the former GDR. On 1 December 1972 the Kommando LaSK was established under the command of LG Horst Stechbarth as independent Army Staff, Main Army Command of the Land Forces, a Military branch of the GDR National People's Army; as HQ served the former barracks of the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, built by Ernst Sagebiel in 1936, located in the area of the Wildpark Potsdam. It was disbanded together with the NPA in 1990; the legal successor became the Bundeswehrkommando Ost under LG Jörg Schönbohm. Today the “Einsatzführungskommando of the Bundeswehr“ is stationed in this Barracks; the main task of the NPA Army Command was to provide Command and Communications to the military branch as the whole, as well as to the subordinated corps-sized commands, officer's high schools, groups and units of the NPA's Land Forces. Under deployment conditions, in line with the situation awareness C3 had to be executed from the Component Headquarters in Geltow, Field Component Headquarters or Operations Centers.

Source: Remark The commanding general was competent and authorized to provide tasks and orders direct to the subordinated deputies. He was assisted by a so-called Militärrat of the Army Command, the highest HQ advisory body on deputy level; the command was composed by the following establishment: Deputy Minister and Commander-in-chief Army with the military advisorDeputy of the Commander Army Command and Chief of the Political Division withThree branches including Chief Party Control Commission, Central Party Leadership, Spec-Propaganda, Political Branch of the Kdo LSK/LVDC Army Command and Chief of Staff withAssistant Chief Of Staff and G3 withBranch 1 Branch 2ACOS and Chief General Tasks withStaff company, guard company and vehicle companyChief G1 with PTA and WTA Chief Organization/Replenishment withBranch Organization Branch ReplenishmentChief RECONChief General-Military Training and Schools Chief G6 withBranches 1, 2 and 8th sectionChief Mil Scientific Chief Chemical Services DC Army and Chief G4 with AC and CS G4 Chief Medical Service Chief Combat Engineer Service Chief Military Architecture Accommodation Chief Military Transport Chief Closing and Equipment Chief SAM Forces Chief Army Aviation Military prosecutor Division 2000 - Here the branch G2 with responsibility to the military branch Land Forces of the National People's Army The following units and commands reported directly to NPA Land Forces Command: Military District Command III with headquarters Military District Command V with headquarters 40th Field Artillery Brigade 40th Technical Training Center 40th Parachute Training Base Air defence missile training center 40 40th Multiple rocket launcher battalion 40th Cnstruction engineering battalion 40th Air assault Regiment Miltaty technical school of the Land forces "Erich Habersaath" 40th Signal battalion Land forces Officer Cadet School "Ernst Thälmann" Foreign Military Officers Training School Engineer construction battalion 40 40th center for missile forces training 40th Support and Garrison Battalion Torsten Diedrich: Handbuch der bewaffneten Organe der DDR.

Weltbild, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-8289-0555-2

Northwest Africa 7034 is a Martian meteorite believed to be the second oldest yet discovered. It is estimated to be two billion years old and contains the most water of any Martian meteorite found on Earth. Although it is from Mars it does not fit into any of the three SNC meteorite categories, forms a new Martian meteorite group named "Martian". Nicknamed "Black Beauty", it was purchased in Morocco and a slice of it was donated to the University of New Mexico by its American owner; the meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011 and was purchased in Morocco by a meteorite dealer who sold it to a collector in the United States. For this reason the exact geographic coordinates of the find location are unknown, there is a strong possibility that meteorites reported to have been found in Morocco were, in fact, not. Like all meteorites that are found in large numbers or sold at markets the name stands for the geographic region and a number, given out consecutively. NWA 7034 carries the nickname "Black Beauty".

NWA 7034 is a volcanic breccia that has a porphyritic appearance, consisting of plagioclase and pyroxene phenocrysts that are up to 5 mm in diameter set in a fine grained groundmass. Accessory minerals include chlorapatite, goethite, magnetite, alkali feldspar and pyrite. There are some clasts present that are made of quenched magma; the groundmass is made from fine grained plagioclase, different oxide minerals, traces of iron sulfides. The whole rock chemistry revealed that NWA 7034 has the highest water content measured in a Martian meteorite; the water might be derived from oceans that used to exist on Mars, but were still present when the volcanic rock, that would become the meteorite, was erupted. The meteorite contains components as old as 4.42 ± 0.07 Ga, was heated during the Amazonian period of Mars. It is the second oldest Martian meteorite known. NWA 7034 is the first Martian meteorite, a breccia and does not fall in any of the known Martian meteorite groups. NWA 7034 was classified as an ungrouped planetary achondrite until the Meteoritical Society approved the new designation "Martian" in January 2013.

The iron/manganese ratio is consistent with that of other Martian meteorites, but the oxygen isotopes do not correlate with a Martian origin. The change in oxygen isotope ratios could be explained by removal or addition of heavier or lighter isotopes, or by mixing with a mass with a different isotopic ratio; this could happen during aqueous alteration of the Martian crust. Another explanation would be an isotopic contamination of the Martian crust during impact brecciation. If it were a terrestrial rock it would be classified as a regolith breccia. Glossary of meteoritics List of Martian meteorites List of meteorites on Mars Northwest Africa 7034 via The Meteoritical Society - Database entry of the Meteoritical Society