Alfred Nobel
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{{Infobox Person
| name = Alfred Nobel
| image = AlfredNobel_adjusted.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1833|10|21}}
| birth_place = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1896|12|10|1833|10|21}}
| death_place = [[Sanremo]], [[Italy]]
| resting_place = [[Norra begravningsplatsen]], [[Stockholm]]
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|59|21|24.52|N|18|1|9.43|E|region:SE_type:landmark||display=inline,title}}
| occupation = Chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of [[dynamite]].
}}
{{Audio|sv-Alfred_Nobel.ogg|'''Alfred Bernhard Nobel'''}} ([[October 21]], [[1833]], [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]] – [[December 10]], [[1896]], [[Sanremo]], [[Italy]]) was a [[Sweden|Swedish]] chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the [[inventor]] of [[dynamite]]. He owned [[Bofors]], a major armaments manufacturer, which he had redirected from its previous role as an iron and steel mill. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the [[Nobel Prize]]s. The [[synthetic element]] [[nobelium]] was named after him.
==Personal background==
Nobel was the third son of [[Immanuel Nobel]] (1801-1872) and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel (1805-1889). Born in [[Stockholm]] on [[October 21]] [[1833]], he went with his family in 1842 to [[Saint Petersburg]], where his father (who had invented modern [[plywood]]) started a [[naval mine|"torpedo"]] works. Alfred studied chemistry with Professor [[Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin]]. In 1859, the factory was left to the care of the second son, [[Ludvig Nobel]] (1831-1888), who greatly enlarged it. Alfred, returning to Sweden with his father after the bankruptcy of their family business, devoted himself to the study of [[explosives]], and especially to the safe manufacture and use of [[nitroglycerine]] (discovered in 1847 by [[Ascanio Sobrero]], one of his fellow students under [[Théophile-Jules Pelouze]] at the [[University of Torino]]). Several explosions occurred at their family-owned factory in [[Heleneborg, Sweden|Heleneborg]]; one disastrous one killed Alfred's younger brother [[Emil Oskar Nobel|Emil]] and several other workers in 1864.
The foundations of the 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.
In 1876 [[Bertha von Suttner]] became Alfred Nobel's secretary but after only a brief stay, left and married Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. Though her personal contact with Alfred Nobel had been brief, she corresponded with him until his death in 1896, and it is believed that she was a major influence in his decision to include a peace prize among those prizes provided in his will, which she won in 1905.
Nobel also wrote ''[[Nemesis (Nobel)|Nemesis]]'', a prose tragedy in four acts about [[Beatrice Cenci]], partly inspired by [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s ''[[The Cenci]]'', was printed while he was dying. The entire stock except for three copies was destroyed immediately after his death, being regarded as scandalous and blasphemous. The first surviving edition (bilingual Swedish-[[Esperanto]]) was published in Sweden in 2003. The play has been translated to Slovenian via the Esperanto version.
Alfred Nobel is buried in [[Norra begravningsplatsen]] in [[Stockholm]].
==Dynamite==
Nobel found that when [[nitroglycerin]] was incorporated in an absorbent inert substance like [[diatomaceous earth|kieselguhr]] (diatomaceous earth) it became safer and more convenient to handle, and this mixture he [[patent]]ed in 1867 as [[dynamite]]. Nobel demonstrated his explosive for the first time that year, at a quarry in [[Redhill, Surrey]], England.
Nobel later on combined nitroglycerin with another explosive, [[gun-cotton]], and obtained a transparent, jelly-like substance, which was a more powerful explosive than dynamite. [[Gelignite]], or blasting gelatin as it was branded, was patented in 1876, and was followed by a host of similar combinations, modified by the addition of [[potassium nitrate]] and various other substances.
==The Prizes==
[[Image:Nobel's death mask.jpg|thumb|Alfred Nobel's [[death mask]], at his residence Bjorkborn in Karlskoga, Sweden.]]
[[Image:Alfred B Nobel.jpg|thumb|Alfred Bernhard Nobel Monument in [[Wagga Wagga, New South Wales|Wagga Wagga]], [[Australia]]]]
{{main article|Nobel Prize}}
The erroneous publication in 1888 of a [[List of premature obituaries|premature obituary]] of Nobel by a French newspaper, condemning him for his invention of dynamite, is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death.<ref>[[The History Channel]], ''[[Modern Marvels]]'', episode 038 (originally aired [[June 21]], [[1999]])</ref> The obituary stated ''Le marchand de la mort est mort'' ("The merchant of death is dead") and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday."<ref name=Nobel>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998209,00.html Golden, F.: "The worst and the brightest"], ''[[TIME]]'' magazine, [[October 16]], [[2000]].</ref> On [[November 27]], [[1895]], at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in [[Paris]], Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the [[Nobel Prize]]s, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality. He died of a [[stroke]] on [[December 10]], [[1896]] at [[Sanremo]], [[Italy]]. He left 31 million [[kronor]] (4,223,500 USD<sub>1896</sub>~103,931,888 USD<sub>2007</sub>) to fund the prizes.
The first three of these prizes are awarded for eminence in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|physical science]], [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|chemistry]] and [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|medical science or physiology]]; the fourth is for [[Nobel Prize for Literature|literary work]] "in an ideal direction" and [[Nobel Peace Prize|the fifth]] is to be given to the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international [[Wiktionary:fraternity|fraternity]], in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of [[peace]] congresses.
The formulation about the literary prize, "in an ideal direction" (''i idealisk riktning'' in Swedish), is cryptic and has caused much confusion. For many years, the Swedish Academy interpreted "ideal" as "idealistic" (''idealistisk'') and used it as a pretext to not give the prize to important but less [[Romanticism|romantic]] authors, such as [[Henrik Ibsen]], [[August Strindberg]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]]. This interpretation has since been revised, and the prize has been awarded to, for example, [[Dario Fo]] and [[José Saramago]], who definitely do not belong to the camp of literary idealism.
There was also quite a lot of room for interpretation by the bodies he had named for deciding on the physical sciences and chemistry prizes, given that he had not consulted them before making the will. In his one-page testament, he stipulated that the money go to discoveries or inventions in the physical sciences and to discoveries or improvements in chemistry. He had opened the door to technological awards, but had not left instructions on how to deal with the distinction between science and technology. Since the deciding bodies he had chosen were more concerned with the former, it is not surprising that the prizes went to scientists and not to engineers, technicians or other inventors. In a sense, the technological prizes announced recently by the [[World Technology Network]] (not funded by the Nobel foundation) indirectly fill this gap.
In 2001, his great-grandnephew, Peter, asked the Bank of Sweden to differentiate its award to economists given "in Alfred Nobel's memory" from the five other awards. This has caused much controversy whether the prize for [[Economics]] is actually a "Nobel Prize" (see [[Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel]]).
==References==
* [[s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nobel, Alfred Bernhard|Nobel, Alfred Bernhard]] in [[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]
* Schück, H, and Sohlman, R., (1929). The Life of Alfred Nobel. London: William Heineman Ltd.
* [[s:U.S. Patent 78317|Alfred Nobel US Patent No 78,317]], dated [[May 26]] [[1868]]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commonscat|Alfred Nobel}}
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/index.html Alfred Nobel - Man behind the Prizes]
*[http://www.nobel.no/eng_com_will1.html Biography at the Norwegian Nobel Institute]
*[http://nobelprize.org/ Nobelprize.org]
*[[:de:Dynamit Nobel AG|A German branch or followup]] ''(German)''
{{Nobel Prizes}}
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{{Persondata
| NAME = Nobel, Alfred Bernhard
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of [[dynamite]]
| DATE OF BIRTH = {{birth date|1833|10|21|mf=y}}
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]]
| DATE OF DEATH = {{death date|1896|12|10|mf=y}}
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Sanremo]], [[Italy]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nobel, Alfred}}
[[Category:Swedish inventors]]
[[Category:Swedish businesspeople]]
[[Category:Swedish engineers]]
[[Category:Swedish chemists]]
[[Category:Nobel Prize]]
[[Category:People from Stockholm]]
[[Category:Nobel family]]
[[Category:1833 births]]
[[Category:1896 deaths]]
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