Dynamite (1867)
Patented explosive made by absorbing nitroglycerin into kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth), making it safe to handle
Science · Chemistry
Alfred Nobel
1833–1896 · Swedish
Chemistry; explosives and industrial invention
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist who tamed nitroglycerin by inventing dynamite, the detonator and gelignite, and built an international explosives business that included the Bofors arms works. Holding 355 patents, he left most of his fortune in his 1895 will to found the Nobel Prizes, first awarded in 1901.
How to spot them
- ▸Dynamite (nitroglycerin absorbed into kieselguhr); the blasting cap; gelignite; ballistite
- ▸A premature obituary calling him 'the merchant of death'
- ▸His will, signed in Paris in 1895, founding prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace
- ▸The element nobelium (102); died in Sanremo, Italy
Key discoveries & works
The blasting cap (detonator) for setting off nitroglycerin (1860s)
A small charge of mercury fulminate used to detonate the main explosive
Gelignite (blasting gelatin) (1875)
Nitroglycerin gelled with nitrocellulose; more powerful than dynamite
Ballistite (1887)
An early smokeless propellant powder
A will of 1895 founding five international prizes (1895)
Left the bulk of his fortune to reward those who had conferred the greatest benefit on humankind
Key ideas
- Made nitroglycerin, discovered by Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, safe and commercially usable for mining, tunnelling and construction
- His prizes, first awarded in 1901, became the world's most prestigious awards; the Peace Prize is awarded in Norway, the others in Sweden
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in Stockholm in 1833; died in Sanremo, Italy, on 10 December 1896, the date on which the prizes are now presented
- •His younger brother Emil was killed in a nitroglycerin explosion at the family works in Stockholm in 1864
- •When his brother Ludvig died in 1888, a French newspaper mistakenly ran Alfred's obituary, reportedly headed 'The merchant of death is dead'
- •Held 355 patents and owned the Swedish arms maker Bofors
- •His brothers Ludvig and Robert built the Branobel oil company in Baku
- •His friend Bertha von Suttner, the peace campaigner, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905
- •The element nobelium (atomic number 102) is named after him
- •The economics prize is not one of his original five; it was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- NobelPrize.org — Alfred Nobel