Alfred Nobel We remember him for the annual prizes that
he gifted to the world, but Alfred Nobel also left us with another legacy - explosives. He was the inventor of dynamite and its even
more deadly incarnation, gelignite. They made him rich beyond his wildest dreams,
but also left him with a tortured conscience. In this week’s Biographics, we examine the
life of Alfred Nobel. Early Years Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October
21st, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a sickly child who almost died during
the first week of birth. As it was, he was one of just four out of
eight children to survive. His illness kept him indoors while his three
brothers played outside. Alfred’s father, Immanuel, was an inventor
and engineer, but he struggled to realize his ambitions and, as a result, the family
struggled to get by. Just three months prior to Alfred’s birth,
his father had been forced to declare bankruptcy and shut down his business. Immanuel was now being chased by creditors. Things became almost unbearable when a fire
ravaged the family home. To help make ends meet, the Nobel children
were sent out onto the streets to sell matches. Alfred was an extremely pallid, sickly child. He suffered from epileptic convulsions along
with a host of gastric diseases and debilitating migraine headaches. For the first six years of his life, Alfred
was schooled by his mother. He proved himself to be a gifted student from
the start. By the age of three he was able to read. From that time onward, he was rarely seen
without a book in hand. He also had a great memory. When Alfred was four year old, his father
moved to Russia in order to pursue a business venture. Immanuel had managed to get a meeting with
the Chairman of the Czar’s Committee for the Promotion of Industry and Trade. He steered the conversation towards landmines,
his area of expertise, and was able to secure an invitation to Turku to meet some influential
people. Immanuel worked in Turku for two years, where
he invented the product we know today as plywood. He then moved to St. Petersburg. There he was introduced to Czar Nicholas 1st. Seizing the opportunity, Immanuel told the
Czar about his plans to develop a submerged explosive mine. Nicholas immediately saw the potential to
use the invention to prevent enemy ships from entering into Russian waters. A Change of Fortune Things were now looking up for the Nobels. With the money he received from the Russian
government as compensation for his development of the submerged explosive mine, Immanuel
set up a mechanical workshop and armaments factory. As well as making the new mine, the factory
also produced industrial tools and cannon shells. In 1842, when, Alfred was nine years old,
Immanuel sent for his family to join him from Stockholm. The new life of the Nobel’s was vastly different
to what they had known in Sweden. Their St. Petersburg house was luxurious in
comparison to their old home. Immanuel was now able to hire a tutor for
his sons.Unlike his brothers, Alfred was studious and intellectual. He was also intensely curious about the world
around him. He loved the poetry of Percy Shelley, especially
those concerned with the subjects of nature and justice. From these readings, he developed a deep desire
to stand up to injustice. Alfred’s other loves were chemistry and
languages. By the time he was seventeen, he could speak
five languages. His father also recognized in the boy a natural
affinity for solving problems, marking Alfred as the most promising of his sons to follow
in his inventive footsteps. The boy loved nothing better than to spend
his time in his father’s factory, silently taking in everything that his dad was doing. Before long, his father allowed him to handle
the chemicals himself. Alfred’s tutors encouraged his passion for
chemistry and literature. At the same time they coaxed him to come out
of his shell socially. Largely as a result of his ill health he was
a painfully shy and introverted boy. Yet, with the help of his tutors, he began
to stretch himself academically in his mid teens. He began participating in debating clubs and
started to share his passions with family members. Then, around the age of 15, he had a growth
spurt which put him at the height of most of his peers. This went a long way to boost his confidence. In 1850, Immanuel paid for Alfred to study
in Paris. He had already been studying with chemist
Nikolai Zinin, and it was chemistry that he pursued in France. The Nitro Fascination In Paris, Alfred spent time with Ascanio Sobrero,
who had recently invented nitroglycerin. Sobrero was totally opposed to any commercial
use of his invention due to its highly unpredictable explosive potential. In fact, in later life he made the following
statement about his invention . . . When I think of all the victims killed during
nitroglycerine explosions, and the terrible havoc that it has wreaked, which in all probability
will continue to occur in the future, I am almost ashamed to admit to being its discoverer. Sobrero’s aversion to his discovery did
not put off young Nobel. In fact, the reverse was true - the substance
fascinated Alfred. Nobel also met a chemist by the name of Jules
Pelouze, who was fascinated with nitroglycerin and had a determination to bring it under
control. After a year in France, Alfred went to the
United States to pursue his studies. There he worked with Swedish inventor John
Ericcson. Ericcson would go on to gain fame as the inventor
of ironclad warships used in the civil war as well as the inventor of the screw propellor. Erricson filled Alfred’s mind with dreams
of what he could do if he was able to tame nitroglycerin. After a year in America, Alfred returned to
St. Petersburg. His family recognized a changed young man. His brother Ludwig recalled . . . Alfred had grown so that I hardly knew him. He is almost as tall as I, and his voice has
become so deep and strong that I didn’t recognize it. But Alfred did more than change physically. The young man who had left with lots of ideas
but little direction now had a goal - to turn nitroglycerin into a commercially usable blasting
agent for use in tunnels and to create fear inspiring weapons of war that were so terrible
that nations would be deterred from ever going to war. First, though, Alfred had to help out the
family. He worked alongside his brothers in one of
his father’s factories. But the physical work proved too much for
his weakened body. He was often too sick to work. On one occasion. in 1854, he became so unwell that his father
packed him off to the spa town on Franzenbad to recuperate. By now, Immanuel’s business was flourishing. His submerged explosive mine was in high demand,
along with other munitions, to supply the Russian forces fighting in the Crimean War
of 1853 through 56. By 1853, Immanuel was employing more than
a thousand people in his factories and the Russian government was so pleased with him
that they awarded him the Imperial Gold Medal in recognition of his ‘diligence and creative
skill in Russian industry’. In between overseeing his manufacturing empire,
Immanuel found time to collaborate with Alfred on the nitroglycerine problem. But even, Immanuel, with his vast experience,
could not find a safe way to detonate the substance. The end of the Crimean War in 1856 saw a sharp
downturn in business for the Nobel company. Immanuel was forced to change his focus from
armaments production to churning out household and industrial implements. But still the business suffered. By 1859, Immanuel found himself facing bankruptcy
for the second time. He closed the factory, liquidated his assets
and moved with his wife and youngest son, Emil, back to Sweden. Alfred and his two older brother, Ludwig and
Robert, stayed on in St. Petersburg. Twenty-eight year old Ludwig was given the
job of consolidating and running the remnant of the Nobel’s Russian operation. He rebranded the company as the Ludwig Nobel
Mechanical Factory. Alfred spent about four hours each day helping
out with the family business. The rest of the day he worked on his passion
to tame nitroglycerine. Dynamite! Alfred’s first step was to learn to create
nitroglycerin himself. By 1861, he had accomplished that goal. After spending up to 18 hours a day in a small
factory building, the first breakthrough came when he discovered how to transport nitroglycerin
safely - by first soaking it in coal dust. Now, suddenly, nitroglycerin was a viable
explosive. Engineering companies from all over the world
came to the Nobel Company to purchase the product - and the money started rolling in. Alfred’s next challenge was to find a safe
way to detonate nitroglycerin. In September, 1864 tragedy struck the Swedish
Nobel company factory. A vat of nitroglycerin had been overheated. In the resulting explosion five people were
killed, including Alfred’s younger brother, Emil. Alfred, himself, was working in the building
next door, and he suffered minor injuries in the disaster. Rather than being put off working with nitroglycerin,
Alfred threw himself into making the explosive safer. To give up now would be ,in his view, to allow
his brother to have died in vain. In 1865, he built a factory in Hamburg, Germany. It so happened that the soil around the Hamburg
factory was special - it contained minute particles of fossils. When nitroglycerin was poured onto the soil,
it turned it into a doughy consistency. This process, in effect, put the nitroglycerin
to sleep. In order to wake it up for detonation purposes,
Nobel invented the blasting cap. Alfred knew that a fuse could not be used
directly to detonate nitroglycerin, but that gunpowder could detonate it. A fuse could be used to detonate the gunpowder
which would then ignite the nitroglycerin. By 1867, he had mastered the use of small
copper capsules of mercury fulminate, which was ignited by a fuse to detonate nitroglycerin. This blasting cap would wake up the nitroglycerin
which was packed in a doughy soil base. Nobel called the combination of nitroglycerin,
blasting cap and soil ‘dynamite’. Nobel patented dynamite and began to put it
on the commercial market. It was an immediate success, with engineers
from all over the world clamoring to get their hands on it. Virtually overnight, Alfred became rich beyond
his wildest dreams. Fabulous Wealth We can get an idea of high much money came
in by an anecdote, apparently true, concerning his housemaid’s wedding. When Alfred asked her what she would like
for a gift, the very astute girl replied, ‘As much as you make in a day’. The following day, Nobel gave her a check
for $100,000. Alfred himself never married, though he did
have at least three great loves throughout his life. While living in Russia in his early twenties
he fell for a Russian girl by the name of Alexandria. Painfully shy, he finally built up the gumption
to tell the girl how he felt about her, but his affections were roundly rejected. The rebuff hurt him badly, and for the next
twenty years, he refused to let his heart be broken again. Nobel consciously portrayed himself as a hermit
and an eccentric. He once wrote the following about himself
. . . I am a misanthrope and yet utterly benevolent,
have more than one screw loose, yet am a super idealist who digests philosophy more efficiently
than food. Even though he had enough money to purchase
anything he wanted, Alfred was rather frugal. This may have been a reflection of the extreme
poverty that he experienced in his childhood. He had no interest in purchasing such personal
tokens of wealth as elegant carriages, clothing or food, but would invest liberally in new
estates and business ventures. Nobel was known to have a temper. He was a man who did not suffer fools with
many occasions being recorded when he was rude with people, usually those who worked
for him. He was a get to the point type of guy, yet
he also had the ability to charm potential investors when the need warranted it. The Women in His Life In 1876, Alfred, apparently tired of his life
of solitude, placed an advertisement in the newspaper that read as follows . . . Wealthy, highly educated gentleman seeks lady
of mature age, versed in languages as secretary and supervisor of household. After interviewing a number of applicants,
Alfred employed a woman by the name of Bertha Kinsky. Thirty three year old Bertha was extremely
attractive and Nobel was immediately attracted to her. He was also taken with her obvious intelligence
and wit. But Bertha did not return her employer's affections. In fact, she had a fiancee. After a few months, probably feeling ill at
ease with the situation, she resigned as Nobel’s secretary. Still, the two remained friends and they maintained
an active letter correspondence right up until the time of Nobel’s death. Bertya, in fact, became the recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. Some weeks after Bertha left his employ, Nobel
met a young woman by the name of Sofie Hess. Despite the fact that Alfred was 43 and Sofie
was just twenty they entered into a relationship that was to last for eighteen years. Apparently embarrassed by the age gap, Nobel
kept the relationship secret. The age difference was not the only thing
that seemed to work against the relationship. Sofie was uncouth, uneducated and ill mannered. Their relationship was a toxic one. In 1891, Sofie became pregnant to another
man but Alfred held out hope for their relationship until she married the child’s father three
years later. Even then, he sent her an annual allowance
of 6,000 florins. International Businessman Nobel never had any children. Despite his immense wealth, he filled his
days with work, often going nonstop for twenty hours. In 1875 he invented gelignite, which proved
to be a safer explosive than dynamite. In the late 1860’s Alfred set up a number
of plants across Europe and the United States. In June, 1866, he started the United States
Blasting Oil Company, the first nitro company in the US. He also spent increasing amounts of time and
money protecting his patented inventions from fraudsters who tried to make money off his
hard work. Alfred was convinced that his invention of
dynamite would ultimately be for the good of mankind, saying that . . . My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than
a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant
, whole armes can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide in golden peace. As history has borne out, his faith in mankind
was sadly misplaced. In 1869, while traveling in France, Nobel
met Paul Barbe, a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique. Barbe, who came from an affluent family, was
fascinated with Nobel’s dynamite and proposed a partnership. He offered to finance the production of dynamite
in France and told Nobel that he wanted to learn how to produce it himself. He had Nobel’s interest, mainly because
France was envied in the industry for the state monopoly that it held over explosives
production. The two men came to an agreement by which
all profits would be split 50:50. The French enterprise was a success and had
soon expanded to factories in Spain, Switzerland and Italy. In 1868, Alfred set his sights on establishing
a dynamite company in England. He considered this to be the prime location,
as it would open up the whole British Empire as his new market. He spent several months travelling around
Britain’s mining districts looking for suitable factory locations. The best chances for investment came from
Scotland. After much negotiation, the British Dynamite
Company was founded. In 1871, Alfred purchased a four storey mansion
and estate in Paris. As well as a greenhouse for his prize orchids
and stables for his beloved horses, the estate had a private laboratory. For the next decade, Alfred spent the bulk
of his time working in this lab, along with his assistant Georges Fehrenbach. It was here that he discovered what he considered
to be dynamite 2.0 - gelignite. Gelignite was not only more stable than dynamite
- it caused a greater explosion and was easier to shape. Overall, gelignite was also much safer and
easier to handle than dynamite. The new invention was an even greater success
than dynamite and it caused even more money to flow into the Nobel coffers. In 1881, Alfred had grown dissatisfied with
the facilities in his Parisa mansion laboratory. He bought another estate, this one located
some 15 miles from Paris in the town of Sevran. Here he built a larger and better equipped
lab. He based himself at Sevran, but ran into problems
with the French authorities when he refused to comply with their new regulations and policies,
which he considered to be unnecessarily restrictive. Amazingly, the French government charged him
with ‘high crimes and treason’. He was forced to close his new lab in Sevran
and left for Italy. The French government forbade him from ever
working in their country again. Prior to his ouster from France, Alfred had
been working on his latest invention, ballistite. He continued this work at his new lab in San
Remo, Italy. Ballistite was a smokeless propellant that
combined nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. The rights to the new explosive were leased
to the Italian government, who began using M1890 Vetterli rifles, which used cartridges
that were loaded with ballistite. A Shocking Realization Alfred’s brother Ludwig died in 1888. The newspapers, however, reported that it
was the far more famous Alfred who had passed away. As a result, Nobel had the rare experience
of reading his own obituary. What he read shocked him to the core. Virtually every newspaper that he looked at
seemed to glory in his supposed demise. One French headline announced . . . The Merchant of Death is Dead. Another report stated . . . Dr. Alfred Nobel (the mutilator), who became
rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday. Nobel was devastated at the realization that
the end result of his life's work was to be worldwide condemnation. He decided that he had to do something to
turn around his reputation in whatever time he had left. In 1893, Alfred employed a personal assistant
by the name of Ragnar Solman and and appointed him as executor of his will. The two men worked diligently on the document
over the next two years. Then, on November 27th, 1895, Alfred signed
the will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. It was a will like no other.. Alfred left 94 percent of his total wealth
- the equivalent of 265 million 2018 dollars - to the awarding of a number of annual prizes
to individuals who, according to the will . . . during the preceding year, have conferred
the greatest benefit on mankind. The will spelled out five categories - physics,
medicine, chemistry, literature and peace. The peace prize was to to be given to . . . The person who has done the most, or the best
work, for fraternity between the nations and abolition or reduction of standing armies
and the formation and spreading of peace congresses. Today, there is a sixth category, economics,
but this was not added until the end of the 20th century. Death and a Legacy In his late 50’s, Nobel’s health issues
increasingly caused him problems. His heart was especially weak. In an attempt to self medicate, he began administering
doses of nitroglycerin. This quite likely contributed to his deteriorating
state. His body finally gave out on December, 10,
1896., following a stroke. He was 63 years of age. The Nobel Prizes began to be awarded in five years later.
