Centenary of Alfred Nobel, 1833–1896

Abstract

ON October 21 occurs the centenary of the birth of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the eminent Swedish engineer, inventor and industrialist, who left the greater part of his fortune to found the Nobel prizes. He was the third of the four sons of Emmanuel Nobel (1801-72) who for many years had works in St. Petersburg, where contracts were carried out for the Russian government, and like his brothers, Alfred was trained in his father's shops. At an early age, his attention was attracted to the subject of explosives, which had entered upon a new phase of development through the invention in 1846 of gun-cotton by Schonbein and of nitro-glycerine by Sobrero in the following year. Experimenting with these new substances, Nobel discovered that nitro-glycerine can be detonated by a small charge of fulminate of mercury, and next found that by mixing nitroglycerine with the porous earth kieselguhr, he could produce an explosive in a form which could be handled easily and safely. To this substance, which he patented in Sweden on September 19, 1867, he gave the name ‘dynamite’. In later years he produced blasting gelatine, ballistite and other explosives, for the manufacture of which works were erected in many parts of the world. Some of Nobel's wealth was derived from his association with his elder brothers, Hjalmar Nobel (1829-1896) and Ludwig Nobel (1831-1888) in their remarkable exploitation of the Baku oil fields and their methods of transporting oil by pipe lines, tank cars and tank steamers. Nobel's death took place at San Remo on December 10, 1896, and by a will which was signed in 1895, about £1,400,000 became available for the foundation of the famous prizes awarded annually for notable work done in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, and literature and in the cause of peace. The first awards were made on December 10, 1901, five years after Nobel's death.