Alfred Bernhard Nobel is a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist who invented dynamite and more powerful explosives and founded the Nobel Prize.
Biography
The future inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm (Sweden) on 1833-21-10. He was the fourth son of Emmanuel and Caroline Nobel. Emmanuel was an engineer who married Caroline Andriette Alsel in 1827. The couple had eight children, of whom only Alfred and three brothers reached adulthood. As a child, Nobel was often ill, but from an early age he showed a lively curiosity. He was interested in explosives and learned basic engineering from his father. My father, meanwhile, failed in various commercial ventures until he moved to St. Petersburg in 1837, where he became a successful mine and tool manufacturer.
Life abroad
In 1842, the Nobel family left Stockholm to join their father in St. Petersburg. Alfred's we althy parents were now able to hire private tutors for him, and he proved to be an impatient student. By the age of 16, Nobel had become a competent chemist, fluent in English,German, French and Russian.
In 1850 Alfred left Russia to spend a year in Paris studying chemistry and then four years in the United States working under John Erickson, who was building the battleship Monitor. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, he worked in his father's factory, which produced military equipment during the Crimean War. After the end of hostilities in 1856, the company struggled to manufacture equipment for steamships and went bankrupt in 1859
Bet on nitroglycerin
The future inventor of dynamite did not stay in Russia and returned to Sweden with his parents, and his brothers Robert and Ludwig decided to save the remnants of the family business. Alfred soon began experimenting with explosives in a small laboratory on his father's estate. At that time, the only reliable explosive used in the mines was black powder. The newly created liquid nitroglycerin was much more powerful, but it was so unstable that it could not provide any kind of safety. However, in 1862, Nobel built a small factory to produce it while doing research in the hope of finding a way to control its detonation.
In 1863, he invented a practical detonator consisting of a wooden plug inserted into a large charge of nitroglycerin stored in a metal container. The explosion of a small charge of black powder in the plug detonated a much more powerful charge of liquid explosive. This detonator startedNobel's reputation as an inventor, as well as the we alth he would acquire as a manufacturer of explosives.
In 1865, Alfred created an improved blasting cap, which consisted of a small metal cap with a charge of mercury fulminate, either by impact or moderate heat. This invention started the modern use of explosives.
Accident
Nitroglycerin itself, however, was difficult to transport and extremely dangerous to handle. So dangerous that the Nobel factory exploded in 1864, killing his younger brother Emil and others. Undeterred by this tragic accident, Alfred built several nitroglycerin factories for use with his primers. These businesses were as safe as the knowledge of the time allowed, but random explosions continued to occur.
Lucky accident
The second important invention of Nobel was dynamite. In 1867, he accidentally discovered that nitroglycerin was completely absorbed by porous silica, and the resulting mixture was much safer to use and easier to handle. Alfred - the inventor of dynamite (from the Greek δύναΜις, "strength") - received patents for it in Great Britain (1867) and the USA (1868). Explosives glorified its creator all over the world, and soon it began to be used in the construction of tunnels and canals, the construction of iron andhighways.
Explosive jelly
In the 1870s and 80s, the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, built a network of explosives factories throughout Europe and formed a network of corporations to sell them. He also continued to experiment in search of the best of them, and in 1875 created a more powerful form of dynamite, explosive jelly, which he patented the following year. Again, by chance, he discovered that a mixture of a solution of nitroglycerin with a loose fibrous substance known as nitrocellulose forms a dense, plastic material with high water resistance and greater explosive power. In 1887, Nobel introduced ballistite, nitroglycerin smokeless powder, and a precursor to cordite. Although Alfred held patents for dynamite and other explosives, he was in constant conflict with competitors who stole his technology, forcing him into protracted patent disputes on several occasions.
Oil, weapons, we alth
The Nobel brothers, Ludwig and Robert, meanwhile developed the newly discovered oil fields near Baku (now in Azerbaijan) near the Caspian Sea and became very rich people themselves. Worldwide sales of explosives, as well as participation in the brothers' companies in Russia, brought Alfred a huge fortune. In 1893, the inventor of dynamite became interested in the Swedish war industry, and the following year he bought an iron smelter at Bofors, near Värmland, which becamethe center of a famous arms factory. In addition to explosives, Nobel invented many other things, such as rayon and leather, and in total he registered more than 350 patents in various countries.
Ascetic, writer, pacifist
The inventor of dynamite Nobel was a complex personality that puzzled his contemporaries. Although business interests required him to travel almost constantly, he remained a solitary recluse who was prone to bouts of depression. Alfred led a secluded and simple life, he was a man of ascetic habits, but he could also be a polite host, a good listener, and a man of a penetrating mind.
The inventor of dynamite never married, and apparently preferred the joy of creativity to romantic affection. He had an abiding interest in literature, writing plays, novels, and poetry almost entirely unpublished. He had amazing energy, and it was not easy for him to relax after intense work. Among his contemporaries he had a reputation as a liberal or even a socialist, but in fact he distrusted democracy, was opposed to women's suffrage, and maintained a mild paternalism towards his many employees. Although the Swedish inventor of dynamite was essentially a pacifist and expressed the hope that the destructive power of his creations would help end the war, his view of humanity and nations was pessimistic.
Will Surprise
By 1895, Alfred developed angina pectoris, and on December 10the following year, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his own villa in Sanremo (Italy). By this time, Nobel's business empire consisted of more than 90 explosives and ammunition factories. His will, drawn up in Paris on 1895-27-11 and deposited in a bank in Stockholm, contained a big surprise for his family, friends and the general public. The inventor of dynamite has always been generous to humanitarian and scientific charities and left much of his fortune in trust to found the most highly regarded international award, the Nobel Prize.
Death of the merchant of death
One can only speculate about the reasons for this decision. He was secretive and did not tell anyone about any of his decisions during the several months leading up to his death. The most plausible suggestion is that a strange incident in 1888 may have set off the chain of thought that led to his will. In the same year, Alfred's brother Ludwig died while in Cannes, France. The French press reported the death of his brother, but confused him with Alfred, and one of the newspapers came out with the headline "The merchant of death is dead." Perhaps the inventor of dynamite instituted the prizes to avoid precisely the kind of posthumous reputation expressed by this premature obituary. It is obvious that the established awards reflect his interest in chemistry, physics, physiology and literature. There is also plenty of evidence that his friendship with the prominent Austrian pacifist Bertha von Suttner inspiredhim to create peace award.
Nobel himself, however, remains a figure full of paradoxes and contradictions: a brilliant lone man, part pessimist and part idealist, who invented powerful explosives used in modern warfare and established the world's most prestigious awards for intellectual services, rendered to mankind.
