Facts about Alfred Nobel's life

By Leon Buengel

Alfred Nobel was born on 21st October in 1833 in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. After his birth he left Sweden and went to join his father, who was living in St. Petersburg while building, in collaboration with the Norwegian government, some ironworks for the Russian army. By the age of just seventeen years, Alfred already spoke five languages: German, English, Russian, Swedish and French. In 1859 he left Russia with his father and went to live in Sweden again.

Back in Sweden, Alfred had a private teacher. He had a great talent for chemistry and physics but was also interested in English literature. Unfortunately, his father did not approve of this enthusiasm and sent Alfred away on an exchange for two years. During this time, he travelled to Sweden, Germany and the United States, and also to France, where he met Ascanio Sobrero, who had invented nitroglycerine three years earlier, although its effects had led him to stop his experiments because they were too dangerous for humans. Nobel was very interested in this explosive and conducted many experiments. From 1860 to 1864 he worked in the Dortmund Dorstfeld mountain laboratory, where he continued with his experiments but improved their safety by inventing detonation in 1864. Nevertheless, there were many accidents - for example, Alfred’s brother and one other person died while they were in the same room as him. Nobel’s laboratory exploded during one experiment and he was the only survivor. After these accidents, he had to leave Stockholm; he built two laboratories, one in Sweden and the other near Hamburg. In 1865 he succeeded in mass producing nitroglycerine.

Nobel tried many ways of making nitroglycerine safer. He added other elements to it but nothing worked, until, however, he found the solution by accident. While nitroglycerine was being transported in a van, a bottle of the liquid spilt some nitroglycerine and it fell to the floor of the vehicle. There the liquid mingled with the dirt to form a previously unknown mixture. The driver told Nobel about the story and, in 1867, he patented the invention, known as dynamite.

Nobel was not merely the inventor of dynamite. He worked on other substances, such as smokeless powder (also patented). After some problems with the French government he had to leave his Paris base and lived in Italy until he died.

Nobel was against war but had the idea that the existence of a dangerous weapon such as dynamite would prevent conflict and lead to peace. He therefore produced large quantities of Dynamite. Other people, however, saw in his invention an opportunity to wage war more intensively.

In 1884 he was admitted to the Swedish Academic Institute. On 10th October 1896 he died in Seramo, Italy.

Nobel Prize: to use the proceeds of his invention, he said just before he died that money should be awarded to those who exert a good influence on others. So, people who have changed the world have received part of his endowment.

There are various types of Nobel Prizes.

For Physics: awarded to the creator of the most interesting invention in this field.

For Chemistry. awarded to the creator of the most interesting invention in this field.

For Medicine: awarded to the creator of the most interesting development in this field capable of helping a great many people.

For Literature: awarded to the creator of the most idealistic body of work.

For Peace: awarded to a person or organization responsible for enhancing peace between the nations of the world.

In Economic Sciences: not one of Nobel’s original prizes, but created in 1968 in Nobel’s memory by the Swedish central bank.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene".

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 was awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis".

The Nobel Prize 2010 for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Robert G. Edwards for his work on ”in vitro fertilization (IVF)”.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was named winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

The professor of economics at MIT, Peter Diamond, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He shared the award with Dale T. Mortensen of Northwestern University and Christopher A. Pissarides of the London School of Economics.