Alfred Bernhard Nobel
1833-1896
Swedish Chemist, Engineer and Industrialist
As the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel amassed great wealth producing instruments of destruction. He left the majority of his fortune to establishing the Nobel Foundation, among whose prizes is the prestigious award for the promotion of peace.
Nobel's education received an important push when his father found success as a manufacturer of explosive mines and machines tools in St. Petersburg. The family left Stockholm to join his father in Russia, enabling the young Nobel to study under private tutors. Fluent in several languages, Nobel showed great interest in engineering and chemistry. For a year he studied in Paris under the noted chemist Theophile Jules Pelouze (1807-1867); while most regard Christian Schonbein (1799-1868) as the inventor of guncotton, some attribute the honor to Pelouze. Nobel then traveled to the United States and worked for four years under John Ericsson (1803-1889), who built the ironclad warship the Monitor.
Nobel began experimenting with explosives on the family estate in Sweden after his father's Russian business, unable to make a peacetime profit once the Crimean War ended, went bankrupt. At the time, black powder, a form of gunpowder, was the dominant explosive used in mines. Even though Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) had recently invented the liquid compound known as nitroglycerin, a much more powerful explosive, it was much too volatile for widespread use. Despite the danger, Nobel's father devised a method for the large-scale production of nitroglycerin and Nobel built a factory for its manufacture. To deal with the problem of nitroglycerin's volatility, Nobel sought to control the detonation of the explosion. His first important invention was a practical detonator for nitroglycerin involving a container of nitroglycerin and a plug containing black powder, the igniting of the less-volatile powder setting off the explosion of the nitroglycerin. Nobel then developed an improved detonator that used a mercury fulminate blasting cap that could be exploded by either shock or moderate heat. These inventions not only marked the beginning of the wealth Nobel was to acquire making explosives, but introduced the modern era of explosives as well.
After the accidental death of a brother and several others at Nobel's nitroglycerin factory, hebuilt several more factories and continued his research into nitroglycerin. He found that a porous clay known as kieselguhr would absorb the nitroglycerin, making its manipulation and transportation much safer. Nobel took the name of this new product from the Greek dynamis meaning "power," calling it dynamite. Nobel's 1867 invention of dynamite, more powerful than gunpowder and relatively safe to use in blasting, brought him a fortune.
Following the invention of dynamite, Nobel continued to research explosives and enlarged his manufacturing interests. In 1875 he invented a more powerful form of dynamite, variously called blasting gelatin, saxonite, gelignite, and Nobel's Extra Dynamite. In 1887 Nobel introduced ballistite, which would become the precursor of another smokeless explosive powder, cordite. (Nobel also invented such nonexplosive products as artificial silk and leather.) In 1894 Nobel bought an ironworks in Bofors, Sweden, which became the basis for the widely known Bofors arms factory.
In great contrast to what the bulk of his career would suggest, Nobel was a devoted humanitarian and philanthropist during his lifetime. In his fiercely contested will, he bequeathed most of his wealth to create the Nobel Foundation, whose awards honor those who have rendered an intellectual service to humanity. The prizes reflect his interest in the areas of chemistry, physics, physiology, and literature. Nobel's inspiration to establish the famous peace prize was most likely influenced by his friendship with the Austrian pacifist Bertha von Suttner. The Nobel Foundation awarded its first monetary prizes in 1901.
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