Alfred Bernhard Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. During his life Nobel issued 355 patents internationally, and by his death had established more than 90 factories. He owned Bofors, which he redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. He bequeathed his fortune to the Nobel Prize institution.
About Alfred Nobel in brief
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. He owned Bofors, which he redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. He bequeathed his fortune to the Nobel Prize institution. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him in the second half of the 20th century. During his life Nobel issued 355 patents internationally, and by his death had established more than 90 factories, despite his apparently pacifist character. In 1875 Nobel invented gelignite, more stable and powerful than dynamite and ballistite and cordite. Nobel was elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would later select laureates of the Nobel prizes. In 1888 Nobel’s brothers Ludvig and Robert founded the oil company Branobel, which became hugely rich through the development of these new oil regions. Nobel invested in their own oil companies and amassed great wealth through these new developments. He died in 1896 and was buried in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the third son of Immanuel Nobel, an inventor and engineer, and Karolina Andriette Nobel.
The couple married in 1827 and had eight children. The family was impoverished, and only Alfred and his three brothers survived past childhood. Through his father, Alfred Nobel was a descendant of Swedish scientist Olaus Rudbeck, and in his turn the boy was interested in engineering, particularly explosives, learning the basic principles from his father at a young age. As a young man, Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin; then, in 1850, went to Paris to further the work. In 1851 at age 18, he went to the U.S. for one year to study, working for a short period under Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. In 1863, Nobel invented a detonator in 1863, and in 1865 designed the blasting cap. On 3 September 1864, a shed used for preparation of nitroglycerin exploded at the factory in Heleneborg, Stockholm, Swedish, killing five people, including Nobel’s younger brother Emil. Fazed by the accident, Nobel founded the company Nitrog Glycerin Aktiebolaget AB in Vinterviken so that he could continue to work in a more isolated area. Now prosperous, Nobel excelled in his studies, particularly in chemistry and languages, achieving fluency in English, French, German and Russian.
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