Historical Figure
Alfred Nobel
1833–1896
Swedish chemist and inventor (1833–1896)
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Biography
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also made several other important contributions to science, holding 355 patents during his life.
Timeline
The story of Alfred Nobel, told in moments.
Held 355 patents. Never married. Wrote poetry no one read. The man who invented dynamite is remembered not for destruction but for the prizes that bear his name. The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in 1901, five years after his death.
His younger brother Emil and four others are killed in a nitroglycerin explosion at the family factory in Heleneborg, Stockholm. Alfred is 30. He doesn't stop working with the substance. He finds a way to tame it.
Patents dynamite. The trick: mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth makes it stable enough to handle. Mining, tunneling, and construction are transformed overnight. So is warfare.
A French newspaper mistakes his brother Ludvig's death for his own and publishes the headline: "The merchant of death is dead." Nobel reads his own obituary. He is shaken by how the world sees him.
Signs his final will in Paris, leaving 94% of his fortune (31 million Swedish kronor, about $265 million today) to fund annual prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. His family contests the will. They lose.
Dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at his villa in San Remo, Italy. He is 63. Alone.
In Their Own Words (16)
My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.
As quoted in The Military Quotation Book (2002) by James Charlton, p. 114., 2002
If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.
As quoted in The 12 best Questions To Ask Customers (2001), by Jim Meisenheimer, p. 26., 2001
I would not leave anything to a man of action as he would be tempted to give up work; on the other hand, I would like to help dreamers as they find it difficult to get on in life.
As quoted in Nobel, Dynamite and Peace (1929) by Ragnar Sohlman and Henrik Schück, as translated by Brian Lunn and Beatrix Lunn, p. 249; also quoted by Lester B. Pearson in his address on accepting the Nobel Peace Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1957)., 1929
Justice is to be found only in the imagination.
Contentment is the only real wealth
Artifacts (15)
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