...-1856. Immanuel Nobel as also a pioneer in arms manufacture and in designing steam engines. Successful in his industrial and business ventures, Immanuel Nobel as able, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg. There, his sons ere given a first class education by private teachers. The training included natural sciences, languages and literature. By the age of 17 Alfred Nobel as fluent in Sedish, Russian, French, English and German. His primary interests ere in English literature and poetry as ell as in chemistry and physics. Alfreds father, ho anted his sons to join his enterprise as engineers, disliked Alfreds interest in poetry and found his son rather introverted. In order to iden Alfreds horizons his father sent him abroad for further training in chemical engineering. During a to year period Alfred Nobel visited Seden, Germany, France and the United States. In Paris, the city he came to like best, he orked in the private laboratory of Professor T.J. Pelouze, a famous chemist. There he met the young Italian chemist HYPERLINK sobrero.htmlAscanio Sobrero ho, three years earlier, had invented HYPERLINK nitrodyn.htmlnitroglycerine, a highly explosive liquid. Nitroglycerine as produced by mixing glycerine ith sulphuric and nitric acid. It as considered too dangerous to be of any practical use. Although its explosive poer greatly exceeded that of gun poder, the liquid ould explode in a very unpredictable manner if subjected to heat and pressure. Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and ho it could be put to practical use in construction ork. He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved and a method had to be developed for the controlled detonation of nitroglycerine. In the United States he visited John Ericsson, the Sedish-American engineer ho had developed the scre propeller for ships. In 1852 Alfred Nobel as asked to come back and ork in the family enterprise hich as booming because of its deliveries to the Russian army. Together ith his father he performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive. As the ar ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel as again forced into bankruptcy. Immanuel and to of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm. His other to sons, HYPERLINK russia.htmlRobert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg. ith some difficulties they managed to salvage the family enterprise and then ent on to develop the HYPERLINK russia.htmloil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They ere very successful and became some of the ealthiest persons of their time. After his return to Seden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing nitroglycerine as an explosive. Several explosions, including one 1864 in hich his brother Emil and several other INCLUDEPICTURE td explosions.gifpersons ere killed, convinced the authorities that nitroglycerine production as exceedingly dangerous. They forbade further experimentation ith nitroglycerine ithin the Stockholm city limits and Alfred Nobel had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on Lake Mlaren. Alfred as not discouraged and in 1864 he as able to start mass production of nitroglycerine. To make the handling of nitroglycerine safer Alfred Nobel experimented ith different additives. He soon found that mixing nitroglycerine ith silica ould turn the liquid into a paste hich could be shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of HYPERLINK nitrodyn.htmldynamite. To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator blasting cap hich could be ignited by lighting a fuse. These inventions ere made at the same time as the diamond drilling cron and the pneumatic drill came into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction ork. INCLUDEPICTURE td laboratories-small.gifThe market for dynamite and detonating caps gre very rapidly and Alfred Nobel also proved himself to be a very skilful entrepreneur and business man. By 1865 his factory in Krmmel near Hamburg, Germany, as exporting nitroglycerine explosives to other countries in, Europe America and Australia. Over the years he founded factories and laboratories in some 90 differe nt places in more than 20 countries. Although he lived in Paris much of his life he as constantly travelling. Victor Hugo at one time described him as Europes richest vagabond. hen he as not travelling or engaging in business activities Nobel himself orked intensively in his various laboratories, first in Stockholm and later in Hamburg Germany, Ardeer Scotland, Paris France, Karlskoga Seden and San Remo Italy. He focused on the development of explosives technology as ell as other chemical inventions, including such materials as synthetic rubber and leather, artificial silk etc. By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 patents. Intensive ork and travel did not leave much time for a private life. At the age of 43 he as feeling like an old man. At this time he advertised in a nespaper ealthy, highly educated elderly gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary and supervisor of INCLUDEPICTURE td berta-small.gifhousehold. The most qualified applicant turned out to be an Austrian oman, Countess Bertha Kinsky. After orking for Nobel for about to months she decided to return to Austria to marry Count Arthur von Suttner. In spite of this Alfred Nobel and HYPERLINK suttner.htmlBertha von Suttner remained friends and kept riting letters to each other for decades. Over the years Bertha von Suttner became increasingly critical of the arms race. She rote a famous book Lay Don Arms and became a prominent figure in the peace movement. No doubt this influenced Alfred Nobel hen he rote his final ill hich as to include a Prize for persons or organizations ho promoted peace. Several years after the death of Alfred Nobel, the Noregian Storting Parliament decided to aard the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize to Bertha von Suttner. Alfred Nobels greatness lay in his ability to combine the penetrating mind of the scientist and inventor ith the forard-looking dynamism of the industrialist. Nobel as very interested in social and peace-related issues and held hat ere considered radical vies in his era. He had a great interest in literature and rote his on poetry and dramatic orks. The Nobel Prizes became an extension and a fulfillment of his lifetime interests. Many of the companies founded by Nobel have developed into industrial enterprises that still play a prominent role in the orld economy, for example Imperial Chemical Industries ICI, Great Britain, Socit Centrale de Dynamite, France, and Dyno Industries in Noray. Toard the end of his life, he acquired the company AB Bofors in Karlskoga, here Bjrkborn Manor became his Sedish home. Alfred Nobel died in ...
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