A Short Biography of Alfred Nobel

ALFRED BENHARD NOBEL

(October 21, 1833)

Alfred Benhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and ornament manufacture. He was the inventor of dynamite. Alfred Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacture of cannons and other ornaments. He held different 355 patents, and dynamite being the most famous of his patents. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.

          

He was born from his dad Immanuel Nobel and his mom Adriette Ahlsell Nebel. Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. He went with his family to Saint Petersburg in 1842, where his father invented modern plywood. Alfred studied chemistry with Professor Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin. In age of 18, he went to US to study chemistry for four year and worked for a short period under John Erickson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS monitor.

          

Returning to Sweden with his dad after the bankruptcy of his family business, then he devoted himself to the study of explosive, and especially to the save manufacture and use of nitroglycerine (discovered in 1847 by Ascanio Sobrero, one of his fellow students under Theophille-Jules Pelouze at the University of Turin). A big explosion occurred on 2 September 1864 at his factory in Heleneborg in Stockholm killed five people. Among them was his younger brother, Emil.

          

The foundation of Nobel Prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth for its establishment. Since 1901, the prize has honored men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for work in peace.