Alfred Nobel

Lore & Background

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 21 October 1833, the third son of Immanuel Nobel, an inventor and engineer, and Andriette Nobel. The family was impoverished, and only Alfred and his three brothers survived childhood. His father, an alumnus of the Royal Institute of Technology, encouraged and taught Nobel from a young age. After business failures, the family moved to Saint Petersburg, where Nobel studied with private tutors and excelled in chemistry and languages, becoming fluent in six languages. He never attended university.

Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin and later went to Paris, where he met Ascanio Sobrero, who had synthesized nitroglycerin. Despite Sobrero's opposition due to its instability, Nobel sought to control nitroglycerin for commercial use. He invented a detonator in 1863 and designed the blasting cap in 1865. On 3 September 1864, a shed explosion at a factory in Heleneborg killed five people, including his younger brother Emil. Nobel then founded Nitroglycerin AB in Vinterviken to continue work in isolation. He invented dynamite in 1867, gelignite in 1875, and ballistite in 1887. He held 355 patents during his life.

Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884 and received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in 1893. Upon his death, he donated his fortune to a foundation to fund the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him, and his legacy survives in companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel.

Reader's Guide

Alfred Nobel's significance lies in his dual legacy as a prolific inventor and the founder of the Nobel Prizes. His invention of dynamite revolutionized construction and mining, enabling large-scale infrastructure projects, while his later inventions like gelignite and ballistite advanced explosives technology. Despite his work with armaments, Nobel's will established prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace, aiming to honor those who benefit humanity. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, of which he was a member, selects laureates for Physics and Chemistry. His name endures through the element nobelium and companies descended from his ventures. The story that a mistaken obituary calling him the 'merchant of death' spurred his decision to create the prizes is widely repeated but unverified by historians. Nobel's life reflects a complex figure who combined scientific innovation with a philanthropic vision that continues to shape global recognition of achievement.

Did You Know?

• Nobel became fluent in six languages: Swedish, French, Russian, English, German, and Italian.
• He filed his first patent, for a gas meter, in 1857 at age 24.
• The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.
• Nobel never attended university; his only schooling was 18 months at the Jacobs Apologistic School in Stockholm.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"I would not leave anything to a man of action as he would be tempted to give up work; on the other hand, I would like to help dreamers as they find it difficult to get on in life." — Alfred Nobel "If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied." — Alfred Nobel "As quoted in The 12 best Questions To Ask Customers (2001), by Jim Meisenheimer, p. 26." — Alfred Nobel "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." — Alfred Nobel