Unlike ammonium nitrate, TNT and chlorates, C4 is a military explosive produced in the US and several other countries.
Some used gelatine sticks while others used a home-made explosive compound of ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate, sulphuric acid and sugar - chemicals available over the counter in most major cities.
Continued research has produced many more types of chemical explosives than those known in Nobel's time: percholates, chlorates, ammonium nitrate-fuel oil mixtures and liquid oxygen explosives are examples.
Inorganic anions used as the model anions were sulfate, fluoride, chloride, bromide, nitrite, nitrate, chlorate, iodide, thiocyanate, and perchlorate, used as their sodium salts.
Flasks and bottles full of nitrates and sulphides and chlorates and acetone, labelled in English and Arabic, lay on dirty tables.