Alfred Nobel | Biography Inventions

An inventor, chemist, and philanthropist, Alfred Bernhard Nobel (October 21, 1833 – December 10, 1896) was one of the world’s most influential men. Aside from setting up the Nobel Prize, he is best renowned for leaving his riches to fund the Prize. He held 355 patents during his career. Nobel’s most notable contribution is unquestionably the explosive compound dynamite, which he invented in 1867 and has since been widely adopted throughout the world’s mines and infrastructure projects. His early talent for science and learning, particularly chemistry and linguistic skills, were well-documented. At the age of 24, Nobel acquired fluency in six languages.

Family Background: 

With his family, he founded and expanded Bofors, an iron and steel company that grew into a well-known manufacturer of cannons and other military equipment. After reading a false obituary that accused him of being a war profiteer, Nobel was moved to leave his riches to the Nobel Prize institution, which would annually honour people who “conferred the greatest value to humanity.” 

Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Swedish and Norwegian parents. Immanuel Nobel, an inventor and engineer, and Karolina Andriette Nobel had three sons. When the couple married and lived in the same house in 1827, they had eight children. Only Alfred and his three older brothers were able to grow up despite their family’s poverty. Alfred Nobel was a direct ancestor of Olaus Rudbeck(1630–1702) on the paternal side of the family, and the young boy was captivated by engineering, particularly explosives, which he learnt from his father. Alfred Nobel inherited his father’s passion for technology, a graduate of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

After many failures, Nobel’s father relocated to Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he found success as a machine tool and explosives producer. His invention of the veneer lathe allowed him to mass-produce the modern plywood and moved to work on torpedoes. In 1842, his entire family moved to the city to be with him. Now that they were well-off, Nobel’s parents could afford to pay for him to have private tutors, and the young man excelled in chemistry and languages, becoming fluent in Russian, German,  English and  French, by the time he was 18. Nobel attended his only school, in Stockholm, for 18 months in 1841 and 1842.

Alfred Nobel Biography

Alfred Nobel biography emigrated to the United States in 1850 to work for ironclad warship builder John Ericsson after spending a year studying chemistry in Paris. With the Crimean War raging around him in 1852, Nobel worked at his father’s firm, manufacturing military supplies. A transition to steamboat machinery production during peacetime proved challenging for the company, and it eventually went bankrupt in 1859.

Alfred’s brothers Robert and Ludvig attempted to recover the family business, which the Russian Revolution decimated. As soon as Alfred had access to his father’s estate, he began conducting experiments with explosives in a small laboratory.

Alfred Nobel Inventions

Alfred Nobel discovered that adding nitroglycerin to an absorbent inert material called kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth), made it safer and easier to handle. The mixture was patented by Nobel as “dynamite” in 1867. Nobel first showed his explosive off in a quarry in Redhill, Surrey, England. To help re-establish his brand and boost the image of his business, Nobel had also contemplated naming the highly potent material “Nobel’s Safety Powder,” but chose Dynamite instead, which refers to the Greek word for power.

Alfred Nobel later made another breakthrough. Combining nitroglycerin with nitrocellulose chemicals, which are similar to collodion, yielded a transparent, jelly-like product that was more potent than Dynamite. Nobel eventually settled on a more successful mixture that included the addition of another nitrate explosive. Blasting gelatine, sometimes known as gelignite, was originally developed in 1876, followed by a slew of similar mixes containing potassium nitrate and other additions. Gelignite had more stability, and transportability, and was easily moulded to fit into drilled holes than the previously used compounds for drilling and mining. Despite the fact that it cost Nobel a lot of his health, it became the standard mining technology during the “Age of Engineering ” and brought him a lot of money. Nobel eventually created ballistite, a precursor to powder explosives which don’t produce smoke.

Conclusion

After a stroke, Nobel lost the capacity to talk in his home tongue, and he was left alone in San Remo, Italy, with only paid staff who did not even speak Swedish. A few days after the death of Nobel, Ragnar Sohlman landed in San Remo, Italy. A small service was held in San Remo, Italy, where Nobel was cremated. His ashes were interred in a stately ceremony in Stockholm.