Industrial researchers and mining engineers perfected ANFO, a highly economical blasting agent made by mixing bulk ammonium nitrate prills with fuel oil. This development occurred across mining centers in the United States and Canada, rapidly replacing dynamite as the primary explosive for open-pit mining and construction. ANFO's extreme insensitivity to shock made it incredibly safe to handle, requiring a high-power booster charge to detonate.

The democratization and cheap scaling of explosive power via ANFO changed the linguistic landscape of industrial prose. It removed the old romantic aura of the lone 'dynamiter,' replacing it with an image of corporate, bulk-chemical landscape modification.