Halifax Explosion
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Search complete. 30 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Halifax Explosion".
Sep 15, 2026
Tranna WintourHOST
Pasts.
Dane StewartHOST
The Halifax Explosion.
Tranna WintourHOST
Oh.
Dane StewartHOST
Somebody-
Dane StewartHOST
And then I wondered-
Adam CaprioloHOST
[laughs]
Dane StewartHOST
... is there something closer to, like a blast closer to my cultural identity? And then I remembered, before the atomic bomb, the largest manmade explosion on earth happened in my home province of Nova Scotia, the Halifax Explosion.
Tranna WintourHOST
And are you proud of that?
Daven HiskeyHOST
Indeed, the extreme danger posed by raw picric acid was tragically demonstrated on December 6, 1917, when French cargo ship SS Mont Blanc, carrying 62 tons of gun cotton, 250 tons of TNT, 246 tons of benzol, and 2,366 tons of picric acid, collided with the Norwegian freighter SS Imo in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia.
Daven HiskeyHOST
The resulting blaze touched off a massive detonation known as the Halifax Explosion, equivalent to 2.9 kilotons of TNT, flattening structures out to a radius of nearly a kilometer or a half a mile, killing nearly 2,000 people and injuring more than 9,000 more.
Daven HiskeyHOST
The latter problem was addressed by coating the inner walls of shells with lacquer or wax, and the former by mixing picric acid with various stabilizers like gun cotton and hexanitro-diphenylamine to produce various compositions.
Daven HiskeyHOST
Picric acid greatly enhanced the destructiveness of artillery and was widely used in several late 19th and early 20th century conflicts.
IanHOST
It's going to bother the shit out of me.
IanHOST
That episode where the boat explodes was the Halifax explosion.
IanHOST
Ah, yes.
IanHOST
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Chris PotterGUEST
So my grandfather, 1907 is when he was born.
Chris PotterGUEST
So the Halifax explosion, 1917, I do believe.
Chris PotterGUEST
So he would have been about 10.
Chris PotterGUEST
My grandmother would have been still an infant, like a baby, less than one.
Chris PotterGUEST
She was born in 1917, right? I'm trying to remember, uh, Halifax explosion.
Chris PotterGUEST
I think it was December, uh, the way my grandfather told it.
Chris PotterGUEST
And for some reason it's, it's very vivid when I think about the people and this is how I truly think people live on forever.
Chris PotterGUEST
So let me tell you.
Zach ShawPANELIST
The Halfax.
Zach ShawPANELIST
Yeah, The Halifax Explosion.
MizHOST
Hal... yeah, The Great Halifax Explosion.
speaker_0HOST
That was one of my favorite books I've ever read.
Kyle MillerHOST
But if you go there, if you're interested in the history of the Titanic, it's a place that people do go and they check out the, I think there's a small, I think there's a museum or at least the graveyard with things that you can read up on the role that Halifax played in recovering the bodies and recovering wreckage and things from the Titanic disaster back in 1912.
Kyle MillerHOST
Difficult time, 1912, so that happened, and then years later, in 1917, just five years later, there was the terrible Halifax explosion, which I've talked about before on the radio, where two ships collided in Halifax Harbor and created a huge explosion, the largest non-nuclear, apparently the largest non-nuclear explosion in history.
Kyle MillerHOST
and completely leveled part of the downtown of Halifax and killed many, many people.
Kyle MillerHOST
Left a lot of people blinded.
Kyle MillerHOST
People were looking out the window at the fire and then the main blast happened and broke windows.
Kyle MillerHOST
And a lot of people got blinded by glass shooting into their face, into their faces.
Kyle MillerHOST
And it was called The Halifax Explosion.
Kyle MillerHOST
It's interesting to
Lisa D. SmithHOST
And so, yeah, you learn a lot that
Darla HoffmannGUEST
Titanic exhibits there, the Titanic and the Halifax explosion.
Darla HoffmannGUEST
Braveyards are not far from the downtown area.
Darla HoffmannGUEST
So I did do that as well because it was just really neat.
1 more episode mentions Halifax Explosion.
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