Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish manufacturer and inventor.
School period
College/University
Career
Gallery of Alfred Nobel
1863
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish chemist and philanthropist. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, is shown seated in this 3/4 length, 3/4 profile portrait.
Gallery of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish chemist, inventor of dynamite, philanthropist, seated at a desk. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Gallery of Alfred Nobel
Seated portrait of Alfred Nobel. He is shown in near profile, with his hand to his beard.
Gallery of Alfred Nobel
Vintage illustration of Alfred Nobel in his laboratory, working on an experiment; screenprint, circa 1930. (Photo by GraphicaArtis)
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish chemist, inventor of dynamite, philanthropist, seated at a desk. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor, engineer and industrialist who had obtained a total of 355 patents in his lifetime. He was most well-known for inventing dynamite, and for developing some more powerful explosives and detonators to effectively ignite them. He left the major portion of his wealth for the establishment of the Nobel Prizes to be awarded for eminence in five different fields, without any discrimination on the basis of nationality.
Background
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Sweden's capital city, Stockholm, on October 21, 1833.
His father was Immanuel Nobel, a self-made engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who had been formally schooled only to the age of 14. His mother was Andriette Ahlsell, an accountant's daughter.
Although at first Immanuel Nobel's business prospered, by the time Alfred was born, his father was bankrupt. A series of business misfortunes followed by the family home burning to the ground left the family penniless.
Alfred was their fourth-born child and barely survived his first few days. He suffered ill-health for most of his life. Alfred's mother and her sickly son formed a strong bond through the years of constant care she gave him during his frequent illnesses.
Education
Alfred began school at age seven - a school for impoverished children called Jacob's Parish Apologist School. The school's pupils and teachers were tough; there were frequent fights in the playground and most pupils were beaten by their teachers every day for any small mistakes in their schoolwork.
Alfred did well in his schoolwork, which made his absent father proud. In attempts to regain his construction business, Immanuel moved to Russia to seek business there. At the age of 9, Alfred and his family moved to Russia to join his father.
Alfred Nobel's passions for English and science, especially chemistry and physics, began at an early age. He was privately tutored in St. Petersburg, Russia. Given the opportunity by his father to study outside Russia, Alfred visited a variety of countries, such as Sweden, France, Germany, and the United States. It was in these countries that Alfred was able to meet significant inventors, such as the inventor of the first ironclad ship in America, and scientists, such as Ascanio Sobrero who studied and invented nitroglycerine, one of the main chemicals that would be a focus for Alfred the rest of his life.
Career
Alfred Nobel believed and often said, "If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied." After his travels around the world, Alfred would devote his time to these ideas and become well known for one of his inventions.
Nobel eventually returned back to Russia to help his father with the construction business. Business was doing exceedingly well because of the Crimean War that was currently raging in that country. Alfred, at this time, did extensive experiments to find ways to utilize nitroglycerine without having the dangerous effects of an explosion.
In 1863, luck had turned against the Nobel family. Once the war ended, business plummeted and Immanuel Nobel became bankrupt again. Much of Alfred's family moved back to Stockholm, Sweden including Alfred and Emil, his brother. They continued their work on explosives until 1864 when an accident occurred in their factory that would take the life of Emil. The business was forced out of Stockholm in order to prevent future explosive accidents. Then, in 1871, Alfred's father passed away, and he was given the family business.
Even with these setbacks, Alfred continued the business and began production once again because of the demand for explosives. Many of his factories were located in Germany and Scotland. At this time, Alfred's success in business was taking off. Alfred was able to stabilize the chemical nitroglycerine when he spilled it on the floor in one of his facilities and discovered that when he mixed porous sand from his floors with the nitroglycerine, he could make a clay-like substance from the mixture. This mixture was stable and yet explosive when ignited. This resulted in the accidental invention of dynamite. Many businesses and military branches sought this invention because of the power of the explosive dynamite and the portability of the item. His success and fame became well known throughout the country and the world; he was the first person to make this type of explosive.
Having glimpsed one possible future, Nobel, like Scrooge, decided to use his money to shape a better world. Nobel bequeathed 94 percent of his enormous wealth to fund five annual prizes for chemistry, physics, medical science or physiology, literature, the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses.
Due to poor health, Alfred Nobel died in the year 1896 in San Remo, Italy. Towards the end of his life, he was not able to talk in languages other than Swedish, having had a stroke. Also, Nobel found it to be an interesting coincidence how he was prescribed nitroglycerine for his poor health. He said, "Isn't it the irony of fate that I have been prescribed nitroglycerine, to be taken internally! They call it Trinitrin, so as not to scare the chemist and the public." It was believed that a stroke, or a cerebral hemorrhage, had finished off his life.
An agnostic in his youth, Nobel became an atheist in his later life. However, during his years in Paris, Nobel was a practicing Lutheran who regularly attended the Church of Sweden Abroad, led by pastor Nathan Söderblom, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.
Politics
Politically, while Nobel was considered a progressive by his contemporaries, he might have best been described as a classical liberal, perhaps even a Libertarian. He opposed allowing women to vote and often expressed his distrust of democracy and its inherent politics as a mechanism for selecting government leaders. A pacifist at heart, Nobel often expressed a hope that the mere threat of the destructive powers of his explosive inventions would forever end war. However, he remained pessimistic about the willingness and ability of mankind and governments to maintain perpetual peace.
Views
For many of his inventions, Nobel used the chemical, nitroglycerine. He was first introduced to nitroglycerine when he studied in Paris, France and met Ascanio Sobrero, the inventor of nitroglycerine. Nobel saw how so few ingredients could make a better explosive than gunpowder. At the time, explosives were necessary for construction, as well as for war efforts.
Nitroglycerine is a liquid that is pale yellow and has an oil consistency. When it comes to explosive chemicals, the bonds within the chemical make-up are usually weak but can readily change into molecules with strong bonds. Nitrogen, an element within nitroglycerine, can easily go from one type of bond to another, releasing energy as it changes. It is said that even just shaking nitroglycerine can cause an explosion.
Nobel got his early patents on "blasting oil" and the blasting cap. Blasting oil was made with nitroglycerine and gunpowder, which was found to be a successful explosive but a little safer in terms of transportation. The blasting cap was conceived after the oil. It was a wood plug that contained a fuse and helped detonate the oil. Although these inventions helped Nobel get a great start in the explosion business, the products were still too dangerous in certain situations.
Nobel never gave up on the idea that nitroglycerine could be used safely. For most of his life, Nobel experimented with nitroglycerine, trying to find some method or mixture that would make this liquid stable under certain conditions. Many had urged Nobel to stop his experimentations, especially after some had ended in tragedy. One tragedy included the death of Nobel's brother, Emil; however, his determination to make a safe explosive using nitroglycerine continued.
After many years of hard work, Nobel was able to make nitroglycerine stable and even portable for easy transportation. He knew that he had to add some substance to nitroglycerine to stabilize the chemical. At one time, he actually made a jelly-like form of an explosive; however, the most stabilized mixture he discovered was formed by adding diatomaceous earth material, a sedimentary substance that is from fossils. It enabled the nitroglycerine to be stable until activated by outside energy, namely fire. Nobel was also able to form the nitroglycerine mixture into sticks that could easily be stuck into rock with drilled holes. Once he patented it, he gave it the name "dynamite," which was considered the best explosive of the time.
Because gunpowder was one of the main explosive materials before the making of dynamite, Nobel experimented with gunpowder and formulated a substance that would smoke less. This helped during the war efforts because the less smokey dynamite had a big impact but allowed for more visibility after an explosion.
Nobel had many patents that focused around rocketry, which included sealing of projectiles, rocket devices used for the war, and efficient engines for projectiles. Later in his life, he had a brilliant idea to create a rocket that would enable individuals to take pictures of the landscape for measurement and design. He called this his Rocket Camera. Although he passed away before the rocket was complete, his successors were able to complete the rocket and take actual pictures of landscapes.
Synthetic rubber and artificial silk were among the minor inventions that he devised during his lifetime.
Quotations:
"My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace."
"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence."
Membership
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
1884
Personality
Throughout his adult life, Nobel lived with an internal conflict. He saw himself as an honest, hardworking scientist, inventor, and businessman. He remembered his impoverished roots, and gave a lot of his money to help the poor.
Those who knew or worked with Alfred Nobel said that he was a very quiet, yet an intelligent man who was always dedicated to his work, trying to make new improvements to his inventions. He also enjoyed literature and often wrote poetry. Alfred said of himself, "I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent, have more than one screw loose yet am a super-idealist who digests philosophy more efficiently than food."
Physical Characteristics:
Nobel's health was poor as he suffered from depression and the possible exposure to chemicals within his laboratory.
Interests
Poetry
Writers
William Shakespeare, Percy Shelley
Connections
As a young man in Saint Petersburg, Alfred Nobel proposed marriage to a young woman called Alexandra, who turned him down.
In Paris, in 1876, he employed the Austrian Countess Bertha Kinsky as his personal assistant. He quickly fell in love with her. It seems she had a lot of affection for him too, but she was already engaged to be married. She left Paris for her wedding but kept in touch with Nobel by letter for the rest of his life. Nobel was impressed by her high ideals, including her pacifism: she was possibly the inspiration behind the Nobel Peace Prize. The Countess was awarded the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the peace movement.
In 1876, possibly on the rebound from his doomed relationship with the Countess, the 43-year-old Nobel began a relationship with a 20-year-old Austrian shop assistant by the name of Sophie Hess. He was embarrassed about their age difference and the fact that she was not very well educated. She also had no interest whatsoever in improving her education and her tastes in all things struck him as brash. She lived in Austria, and he would travel from Paris to see her. He did not introduce her to his acquaintances in Paris. In 1891, Sophie had another man's baby. Nobel continued sending her money until she finally married the father of her child in 1894.