Today (October 21, 1833) is the birthday of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish Scientist who invented the Dynamite ammunition and formed the Nobel Prize.

Today (October 21, 1833) is the birthday of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish Scientist who invented the Dynamite ammunition and formed the Nobel Prize. 

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm, the fourth son of inventor and engineer Emmanuel Noble and Carolina Andriet Noble. In total they had eight children. Due to family poverty, only Alfred and his three brothers survived childhood. Through his father, Alfred Nobel is a descendant of the Swedish scientist Olus Rudbeck. Alfred Nobel became interested in engineering at a young age, especially in explosives. His interest in technology was instilled in him by his father, a former student at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

                                             

Following various business failures, Noble's father moved to St. Petersburg in 1837, where he grew up to be a successful machine and ammunition manufacturer. He invented modern plywood. And began work on the "torpedo" involved. Prosperous his parents, private teachers were able to send Nobel to classes. So he excelled in chemistry and languages. As a boy he was fluent in English, French, German, and Russian. During 1841-1842, for 18 months, Noble attended the Jacobs Apologic School in Stockholm, the only school he attended during his lifetime. As a young man, Noble studied with the chemist Nikolai Jinin. Later, in 1850, he went to Paris for this work. At the age of 18, he collaborated for a short time under inventor John Erickson, who carried out chemical research in the United States for four years. 

John Erickson designed the Ironclad USS monitor for the American Civil War. Nobel filed his first patent for a gas meter in 1857. The family's factory had been producing weapons for the Crimean War. But after the end of the Crimean War, they went bankrupt as it was difficult to switch back to domestic production. In 1859, Noble's father left his factory with his second son, Ludwig Noble. He made great business progress. Noble and his parents then returned to Sweden from Russia. Nobel devoted himself to the study of explosives. In particular, nitroglycerin (discovered in 1847 by Ascaniro, a student of Theophilus Jules Philos at the University of Turin, was of great interest in safe production and use.

                

On September 3, 1864, five people, including Noble's younger brother Emil, were killed in an explosion in a shed used to make nitroglycerin at a factory in Helenborg, Stockholm. Nobel, however, went on to build more factories to improve the stability of the explosives he developed, in spite of minor accidents. Noble invented dynamite in 1867, an easier and safer material to handle than unstable nitroglycerin. For dynamite, patented in the US and UK. It was also used for mining and international transport networks. In 1875 Noble discovered gelignite, more stable and more powerful than dynamite. Nobel was later elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the organization that selects people for two Nobel Prizes. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1893 from Uppsala University.

      

The Noble brothers Ludwig and Robert became very rich in their own right by using the oil wells on the Caspian coast. Nobel also invested in it and amassed great wealth through the development of new oil fields and issued 350 patents internationally. Although a Nobel laureate, he founded 90 arms factories before his death. In 1888, following the death of his brother Ludwig, several newspapers misrepresented Alfred's condolences. A French condolence message stated that the merchant of death had died (Le Marchand De La mortest Mort). In 1891, after the death of his mother and his brother Ludwig, Nobel moved from Paris to San Remo, Italy. He was shocked to see the news of his death in the French newspaper "Death Merchant Death". He became seriously concerned about how he would be remembered after his death. This is what made him change his will.

To everyone's surprise, Nobel's last will stated that most of his wealth should be used to give gifts in the fields of physics, chemistry, peace, medicine, and literature to those who have contributed to the "progress of mankind." Noble wrote many wills during his lifetime. His last will and testament was written and signed on November 27, 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Forum in Paris. He wrote 94% of his wealth, 31 million Swedish kronor (150 million euros, 186 US dollars as of 2008), for five Nobel Prizes. Approved by the Norwegian Parliament on April 26, 1897 due to doubts over his will. The "Nobel Foundation" was set up by those who were to enforce the Nobel Prize, to preserve his property and to regulate / regulate the awarding of gifts.

                             

According to Nobel notes, the Norwegian Nobel Committee was set up to award the Nobel Peace Prize, and its members were elected within days of the will being approved. After that, groups were formed to present other gifts. They were proclaimed by King Oscar II in 1900, after the rules of how the prizes were to be awarded were approved by the Nobel Foundation in 1900. Norway and Sweden split in 1905. Since then, Norway has been responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize, and Swedish organizations have been responsible for awarding other prizes.

                         

The visionary Alfred Nobel, who was internationally recognized and acclaimed by many of the world's foremost scientists and literary figures, passed away on December 10, 1896 in Sanremo, Italy at the age of 63 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Unbeknownst to his family, friends or fellow students, he left his fortune to present the Nobel Prizes. He was buried at Nora in Stockholm. The synthetic element Nobelium was named in his memory.

Source By: Wikipedia.

Information: Ramesh, Assistant Professor of Physics, Nehru Memorial College, Puthanampatti, Trichy.