Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)
By Robert Williams (Year 12) and Michael Gittins (Year 12)
Alfred Nobel ( 13 October 1833 - 10 December 1896 ) was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He invented dynamite and was the founder of the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. As a young man, he had the thought that discovering a terrible explosive would force the world to abandon thoughts of warfare. Later in his life, he came to realise that his invention did not make the possibility of warfare more difficult, but instead his invention had made it easier. For this reason on 27 November 1885, a year before he died, Alfred Nobel wrote his last will and testament.
Nobel's Early Life
His father, Immanuel Nobel was an engineer and inventor, and built bridges and buildings in Stockholm. In connection with this his father also experimented with different techniques of blasting rock. The loss of some barges of building material in the construction work forced Immanuel Nobel into bankruptcy the same year Alfred was born. In 1837 Immanuel left Stockholm and his family behind to start a new career in Finland and Russia, and found success in a new enterprise in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started a mechanical workshop which provided equipment for the Russian army and also convinced the Tsar and his generals to use his naval mines to block enemy naval ships from threatening the city. They were simple devices consisting of submerged wooden casks filled with gun powder, and they were anchored below the surface of the gulf of Finland. They effectively deterred the British Royal Navy from moving into firing range of the city during the Crimean war (1853-1856). Immanuel Nobel was also a pioneer in arms manufacture and in designing steam engines. Successful in his industrial and business ventures, in 1842 Immanuel Nobel brought his family to St. Petersburg. There, his sons were given a first class education by private teachers. The training included natural sciences, languages and literature. By the age of 17 Alfred Nobel was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German. His primary interests were in English literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics. Alfred's father, who wanted his sons to join his enterprise as engineers, disliked Alfred's interest in poetry and found his son rather introverted. In order to widen Alfred's horizons his father sent him abroad for further training in chemical engineering.
Nobel's Work
During a two year period Alfred Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States. In Paris, the city he came to like best, he worked in the private laboratory of Professor T.J. Pelouze, a famous chemist. There he met the young Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero who, three years earlier, had invented nitroglycerine, a highly explosive liquid. Nitroglycerine was produced by mixing glycerine with sulphuric and nitric acid. It was considered too dangerous to be of any practical use. Although its explosive power greatly exceeded that of gun powder, the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner if subjected to heat and pressure. Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work. He also realised that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of nitroglycerine. In 1852 Alfred Nobel was asked to come back and work in the family enterprise which was booming because of its deliveries to the Russian army. Together with his father he performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive. As the war ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel was again forced into bankruptcy. Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm. His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg. With some difficulties they managed to salvage the family enterprise and then went on to develop the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They were very successful and became some of the wealthiest persons of their time.
After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing nitroglycerine as an explosive. Several explosions, including one (1864) in which his brother Emil and several other persons were killed, convinced the authorities that nitroglycerine production was exceedingly dangerous. They forbade further experimentation with nitroglycerine within the Stockholm city limits and Alfred Nobel had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on Lake Mälaren. Alfred was not discouraged and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerine. To make the handling of nitroglycerine safer Alfred Nobel experimented with different additives. He soon found that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would turn the liquid into a paste which could be shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of dynamite.
"Guhr dynamite was not more powerful than pure nitroglycerine. Since dynamite consisted of 25 percent kieselguhr, which is a chemically inert, passive component. Still dynamite was 5 to 8 times more powerful than blasting gunpowder and the small trade-off in power compared with nitroglycerine was considered small when related to the safety of the stuff."
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[ Point your mouse over this to detonate a dynamite rod ]
To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap) which could be ignited by lighting a fuse. These inventions were made at the same time as the diamond drilling crown and the pneumatic drill came into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction work. The market for dynamite and detonating caps grew very rapidly and Alfred Nobel also proved himself to be a very skilful entrepreneur and business man. By 1865 his factory in Krümmel near Hamburg, Germany, was exporting nitroglycerine explosives to other countries in Europe, America and Australia. Over the years he founded factories and laboratories in some 90 different places in more than 20 countries. He focused on the development of explosives technology as well as other chemical inventions, including such materials as synthetic rubber and leather, artificial silk, etc. By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents which included:
- 1863 Obtained a patent for the detonator cap
- 1864 Covering detonating charges and percussion caps
- 1888 Ballistite, a smokeless powder.
- 1875 Blasting Gelatine, a solution of nitroglycerine and guncotton
- 1888 Introduced Cordite
Nobel's Legacy
Many of the companies founded by Nobel have developed into industrial enterprises that still play a prominent role in the world economy, for example Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). When his will was opened it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The executors of his will were two young engineers, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist. They set about forming the Nobel Foundation as an organisation to take care of the financial assets left by Nobel for this purpose and to co-ordinate the work of the Prize-Awarding Institutions. This was not without its difficulties since the will was contested by relatives and questioned by authorities in various countries.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel left more than 9 million dollars of his fortune to found the Nobel prizes. Under his will, signed in 1895, the income from this fund was to be distributed yearly in five equal parts as prizes to those who had most helped humankind. The interest from the liquidation of Nobel’s enterprises was to be awarded in annual prizes for the greatest services to mankind in science and literature, and for the most effective work to promote friendship between nations.
A prize was to be awarded in each of five fields: physics, chemistry, physiology (or medicine), literature, peace, and (after 1968) economics. The physics and chemistry awards were to be made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; physiology or medicine, by the Caroline Institute of Stockholm; literature, by the Swedish Academy; and peace, by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian parliament. A prize in economics was established in 1968. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was designated to make the award.
The Nobel prizes were first awarded on Dec. 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel's death. They have since been given every December 10 when possible. No Nobel prizes were announced during the years 1940-42. The amount of each prize was more than 40,000 dollars in 1901; in 1991 it reached 1 million dollars. Often a prize is divided between two or more winners. In keeping with Nobel's will, all nationalities are eligible for awards.
The 1998 Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to:
- Walter Kohn For his development of the density-functional theory
- John A Pople For his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry
View Nobel's Full Last Will and Testimony
Alfred Nobel's greatness lay in his ability to combine the penetrating mind of the scientist and inventor with the forward-looking dynamism of the industrialist. Nobel was very interested in social and peace-related issues and held what were considered radical views in his era. He had a great interest in literature and wrote his own poetry and dramatic works. The Nobel Prizes became an extension and a fulfilment of his lifetime interests.