Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who instituted the Nobel Prizes, was born in
Stockholm (Sweden) in 1833. His father was an expert in explosives.
Alfred was never formally educated, but he had a talent for invention and
was a competent chemist at the age of sixteen. After studying chemistry in
France and United States, he went into the family business of making
explosives and set up a small factory near Stockholm in Sweden. A few
incidents of blasts in his factory led him to be called a ’mad scientist’.
At that time, nitroglycerine was used as an explosive. It was a very
powerful and extremely dangerous explosive. Alfred tried many ways of
developing its safer form. By adding a fine, porous powder called
kieselguhr, he invented a safe, easily handled explosive. Alfred named the
new explosive ’dynamite’. He received a patent for it in 1867. Construction
companies, mining companies and the government of various countries,
ordered large quantities of dynamite because of its relative safety and
explosive power. He went on to develop other new explosives. Alfred set up
factories around the world, which produced a vast range of explosives.
The sales of dynamite and other explosives brought him great wealth. He
became a millionaire.
It so happened that when his elder brother died of heart trouble, a
leading French newspaper misread the report and ran an obituary of Alfred
Nobel, calling him ’a merchant of death’. Upon seeing the obituary, Nobel
was stunned. He realized the potential misuse of his invention. The feeling
of guilt led him to do something ’noble’ for the world. So before he died,
he left in his will, a fund of about nine million dollars, the interest of
which was to provide five annual awards as noble prizes, to those who did
the most to advance the cause of peace, literature, and the sciences.
The Nobel Prizes, first awarded in the year 1901, remain the most
honoured prizes in the world.
