Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero synthesized nitroglycerin for the first time at the University of Turin in Turin, Italy. Sobrero was so terrified by the violent explosive power and extreme mechanical instability of the oily liquid that he initially kept his discovery secret and warned others against its manufacture. It was multiple times more powerful than gunpowder, but too dangerous to manipulate commercially without a stabilizer.

Sobrero's profound personal guilt and fear over his creation prefigured the trope of the tormented scientist in modern literature. Poetic warnings about playing God and unleashing chaotic chemical monsters grew directly from the real-world anxieties surrounding nitroglycerin's early handling.