Detonating cord

As a transmission medium, it can act as a downline between the initiator (usually a trigger) and the blast area, and as a trunkline connecting several different explosive charges.

[1] Low-yield detonating cord can be used as a precision cutting charge to remove cables, pipes, wiring, fiber optics, and other utility bundles by placing one or more complete wraps around the target.

Detonation cord is used in commercial boilers to break up clinkers (solidified coal ash slag) adhering to tube structures.

Higher-yield detonating cord can be used to cut down small trees, although the process is very uneconomical compared to using bulk explosive, or even a chainsaw.

Creating a slipknot from detonating cord yields a field-improvised device that can be quickly employed to cut a locked doorknob off a door.

Detonation cord was referenced in the 2009 film A Perfect Getaway by Timothy Olyphant's character as "a handy tool".

A spool of primer cord was used by Alan Alda's character Hawkeye in the TV series M*A*S*H (Season 9, Episode 12, "Depressing News") to demolish his newly built replica of the Washington Monument crafted from tongue depressors.