Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, and industrialist who developed dynamite and built an international manufacturing empire around explosives. [1] He held hundreds of patents and controlled factories across Europe, yet is remembered chiefly for the bequest in his will that founded the Nobel Prizes. [2] The awards, first presented in 1901, recognize achievement in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and the promotion of peace. [3]
Early life and education
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, the son of Immanuel Nobel, an engineer and inventor. [1] When the family business faltered, his father moved to Saint Petersburg, where he prospered manufacturing equipment for the Russian military. Alfred received a broad private education, becoming fluent in several languages and developing early interests in chemistry and poetry. As a young man he studied chemistry abroad, including a period in Paris, where he encountered work on the volatile compound nitroglycerine. [2]
Invention of dynamite
Nitroglycerine was a powerful but dangerously unstable explosive, and early handling of it caused fatal accidents, including a blast at the family's Stockholm laboratory in 1864 that killed Nobel's younger brother Emil. [1] Seeking a safer form, Nobel found that absorbing the liquid into a porous mineral called kieselguhr produced a stable, mouldable paste that could be handled and detonated reliably. He patented this material as dynamite in 1867. [2] Together with the blasting cap he had devised to trigger it, dynamite transformed mining, tunnelling, and construction across the industrializing world.
Industrial empire
Nobel built a network of laboratories and factories throughout Europe and beyond, and over his lifetime he was granted several hundred patents. [1] He continued to refine explosives, introducing gelignite, or blasting gelatine, and later a smokeless propellant known as ballistite. His companies formed the basis of major chemical and armaments concerns, and he amassed a substantial fortune. He lived much of his life travelling between residences in different countries and never married.
The Nobel Prizes
According to a widely repeated account, a French newspaper published a premature obituary that condemned Nobel as a “merchant of death” for his role in the explosives trade, prompting him to reconsider how he would be remembered. [2] In his final will, signed in 1895, he directed that the bulk of his estate fund annual prizes for those who had conferred the greatest benefit on humankind. [3] Nobel died in Sanremo, Italy, on 10 December 1896. [1]
Legacy
After legal challenges to the will were resolved, the Nobel Foundation was established, and the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. [3] The prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace became among the most prestigious honours in the world, and Nobel's name endures far more for this philanthropy than for the explosives that made his fortune. The element nobelium was later named after him. [1]
