Alfred Nobel 1833-1896

Lasting Legacy

Even today Nobel’s legacy lives on through the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies, which are held in various parts of Sweden and Norway annually. These awards honour the best and the brightest, who reflect Alfred Nobel’s vision of making the world a better place!

“I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am sceptical as to its results.”
-Alfred Nobel

His last Will

In his will of November 27, 1895 signed in Paris, Alfred Nobel specified that the bulk of his fortune should be divided into five parts and to be used for Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

The dynamite dynamo

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honouring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and for work in Peace.

The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

But who was Alfred Nobel? This article gives a glimpse of a man whose varied interests are reflected in the prize he established.

Alfred Nobel never attended any university, nor did he obtain any degree. His tutorial instruction came to an end as early as 1850.

While his older brothers Robert and Ludvig were busy working in the family engineering enterprise, Alfred was sent at age 17 out into the world on educational travels, first to Paris, where – at the recommendation of his chemistry teacher, Prof Zinin – he worked in the laboratory of the famous Prof Jules Pélouze. Here he came into contact with the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero, who had discovered nitroglycerine in 1847. Nitroglycerine possessed violent explosive power, but no one had devised a solution regarding how to control this highly dangerous substance.

Alfred’s education continued in the United States where he studied the latest technological advances. He met John Ericsson, his father’s countryman and contemporary who had arrived in America the year after Immanuel reached Russia and whose interests and inventions largely coincided with the Nobel company’s activities in St. Petersburg.

Returning from his foreign travels in 1852, Alfred joined his two brothers at their father’s factory in St. Petersburg.

Alfred often suffered from delicate health. Combined with hard work, this led him to fall ill in the summer of 1854 and he travelled to the Bohemian spa town of Franzenbad to take the waters.

Together with his father, Alfred had understood the enormous potential of nitroglycerine as an explosive and tried to develop a form that was less hazardous and easier to handle. In testimony during one of the American patent cases that Alfred was involved in many years later, he explained how he and his father had become interested in nitroglycerine. He was asked: “Do you know of any one before you having experimented with nitroglycerine?”

His answer:

“Yes, Sobrero who discovered it, also discovered that it was explosive. Prof Zinin and Prof Trapp in St. Petersburg went a step further in conjecturing that it might be made useful and called the attention of my father to it, who was then engaged in making torpedos for the Russian government during the Crimean War.

“My father tried it, but could not get it to explode.”

The next question:

“When did you first experiment with nitroglycerine, and what did you do?”

Alfred Nobel’s answer:

“The first time I saw nitroglycerine was in the beginning of the Crimean War. Prof Zinin in St. Petersburg exhibited some to my father and me and struck some on an anvil to show that only the part touched by the hammer exploded without spreading. His opinion was that it might become a useful substance for military purposes, if only a practical means could be devised to explode it.

My father tried to explode it during the Crimean war, but completely failed to do so ... My father’s later experiments with gunpowder mixed with nitroglycerine were all on a small scale.” The early 1850s were golden years for the Nobel family. In 1853, Immanuel was presented at court and awarded Tsar Nikolai’s Imperial Gold Medal “for diligence and creative skill in Russian industry,” a rare distinction for a foreigner. After the Tsar’s death in 1855 and the conclusion of the Crimean War under the Treaty of Paris of March 30, 1856, the new government of Russia disregarded the promises for orders made by its predecessor.

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