A high explosive of nitroglycerine mixed with an inert absorbent, compacted into a cylindrical shape and wrapped in paper. It was invented by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833–96) and was originally formulated from nitroglycerine-absorbed kieselguhr. Once used for military purposes, modern forms of dynamite are used for blasting, mining, and quarrying, and contain sodium or ammonium nitrate with the nitroglycerine soaked into absorbent materials. It is not to be confused with TNT.