In 1873 French author Jules Verne wrote one of the most popular adventure novels ever written- around the world in eighty days. It was a product of its time, and sparked an extraordinary race to beat that record.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.