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Alfred Nobel's Thoughts about War and Peace

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The profile of Alfred Nobel appears on the side of the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway.

Credit: Vladislav Gajic | Shutterstock.com

For more than 100 years, the Nobel Prizes have recognized the finest in human achievements, from literature and science to the Nobel Peace Prize, which is given "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses," according to the last will and testament of founder Alfred Nobel.

But the origins of the Nobel Prizes, and the life of Alfred Nobel, tell a very different story, one tainted by the deaths of untold thousands of people.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an inventor and engineer who struggled financially for much of his life. Forced to declare bankruptcy, Immanuel left Sweden and began working in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he impressed the czar ith one of his inventions - submerged explosive mines that could thwart a naval invasion. [ Quiz: Test Your Nobel Knowledge]

Finally achieving a measure of success, Immanuel brought his wife and eight children to St. Petersburg. His sons were given a formal education, and Alfred shined under strict Russian tutelage, mastering several languages as well as chemistry, physics, poetry and natural sciences.

Because the elder Nobel disapproved of Alfred's interest in poetry, he sent his son abroad to further his training in chemistry and engineering. While studying in Paris, Nobel met Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero, who in 1847 invented nitroglycerin, the oily, liquid explosive made by combining glycerin with nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

Innovation from tragedy

Though nitroglycerine was considered too unsafe to have any practical use, the Nobel family - which now had several profitable enterprises in Russia and Sweden - continued to investigate its potential for commercial and industrial uses.

But their inquiries had tragic results: In 1864, Alfred's younger brother Emil and several other people were killed in an explosion at one of their factories in Sweden. The disaster encouraged Alfred to try to find a way to make nitroglycerin safe. Success didn't come easily: Early experiments included the creation of "blasting oil," a mixture of nitro and gunpowder, which resulted in several deadly explosions and once killed 15 people when it exploded in a storeroom in San Francisco.

Finally, in 1867, Alfred Nobel found that by mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth (known as kieselguhr in German), the resulting compound was a stable paste that could be shaped into short sticks that mining companies might use to blast through rock. Nobel patented this invention as " dynamite," from the Greek word dunamis, or "power."

The invention of dynamite revolutionized the mining, construction and demolition industries. Railroad companies could now safety blast through mountains, opening up vast stretches of the Earth's surface to exploration and commerce. As a result, Nobel - who eventually garnered 355 patents on his many inventions - grew fantastically wealthy.

'Merchant of death'

Dynamite, of course, had other uses, and it wasn't long before military authorities began using it in warfare, including dynamite cannons used during the Spanish-American War. Though he's widely credited with being a pacifist, it's not known whether Nobel approved of dynamite's military use or not.

Nonetheless, he found out what others thought of his invention when, in 1888, his brother Ludvig died. Though some journalistic error, Alfred's obituary was widely printed instead, and he was scorned for being the man who made millions through the deaths of others. Once French newspaper wrote " Le marchand de la mort est mort," or "the merchant of death is dead." The obituary went on to describe Nobel as a man "who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before."

Nobel was reportedly stunned by what he read, and as a result became determined to do something to improve his legacy. One year before he died in 1896, Nobel signed his last will and testament, which set aside the majority of his vast estate to establish the five Nobel Prizes, including one awarded for the pursuit of peace.

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science .

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For more than 100 years, the Nobel Prizes have recognized the finest in human achievements, from literature and science to the Nobel Peace Prize, which is given "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses," according to the last will and testament of founder Alfred Nobel.

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Alfred Nobel - St. Petersburg, 1842-1863by Birgitta Lemmel*IntroductionAlfred Nobel (1833-1896) – scientist, author and pacifist, but above all the inventor of dynamite and holder of 355 patents – shaped as a human being in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Russian capital where different nationalities and cultures mixed and where science and literature developed in a dynamic interaction between Western European tradition and the aspirations of the Russian intelligentsia. Here are the roots of his international prizes – the Nobel Prizes – which made him world-famous after his death in 1896.Young Alfred Nobel

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Alfred Nobel - St. Petersburg, 1842-1863by Birgitta Lemmel*IntroductionAlfred Nobel (1833-1896) – scientist, author and pacifist, but above all the inventor of dynamite and holder of 355 patents – shaped as a human being in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Russian capital where different nationalities and cultures mixed and where science and literature developed in a dynamic interaction between Western European tradition and the aspirations of the Russian intelligentsia. Here are the roots of his international prizes – the Nobel Prizes – which made him world-famous after his death in 1896.Young Alfred Nobel

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This website explains all the things he has done and his life from when he was a kid to when he had died. Specializing in his middle years and the years where he spent time studying the topic.

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Alfred Nobel was the man who the Nobel Prize was named after and the holder of 355 patents, including the invention of dynamite. Learn more at Biography.com.

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Alfred Nobel: Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes.

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One thousand times more powerful than black powder, dynamite expedited the building of roads, tunnels, canals, and other construction projects worldwide in the second half of the 19th century. Today its inventor's name is well known, but more for prizes of peace and of achievement than for explosives.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries the growing understanding of gases and the reactions that produce them was of great importance to modern industrial society. Not least was the production of explosives-substances that undergo reactions involving the release of heat and rapidly expanding gaseous products. In making black powder Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and E. I. du Pont were improving a technology known to Western cultures since the 14th century and even earlier in China and the Far East. By the mid-19th century much more powerful explosives were being created by treating various organic substances with nitric acid. Among these new explosives was dynamite, a stabilized form of nitroglycerin, invented in 1867 by Alfred Nobel (1833-1896).

Early Years

Nobel's father, Immanuel, was a Swedish inventor-entrepreneur. When Alfred was still a young child, Immanuel relocated his business and family to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he supplied the Russian military with war matériel, including early underwater mines. Alfred and his brothers were educated at home by Swedish and Russian tutors in chemistry and other subjects. Alfred became very proficient in chemistry but also entertained ambitions of becoming a writer. Partly to dissuade him from the latter, his father financed his 16-year-old son's travel and study in Europe, including a stay of some months in the Paris laboratory of Théophile Pelouze, where Nobel shared workspace with an Italian chemist, Ascanio Sobrero, who had first prepared nitroglycerin in 1846.

Dynamite

When he was 17, Nobel apprenticed in New York with the Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson, who later built the Monitor, the Union's ironclad warship that became famous for defeating the Confederacy's Merrimac. When Nobel returned to St. Petersburg, the family factory was booming thanks to the Crimean War. When the war ended and the firm went into bankruptcy, Nobel and his father turned to developing methods to produce nitroglycerin in quantity for use in construction. In 1862 Nobel began its manufacture in a small plant outside Stockholm-a venture that cost the life of his youngest brother, Emil. Nobel persevered with his goal of developing a safe nitroglycerin explosive, first inventing the blasting cap and then discovering that a silicaceous earth, kieselguhr, would stabilize nitroglycerin, thus making dynamite.

Fortune from Destruction

Nobel became wealthy by setting up companies and selling patent rights to dynamite and related products worldwide. The DuPont Company in the United States became one of the chief companies associated with Nobel. In 1875 he created blasting gelatin, a colloidal suspension of nitrocellulose in glycerin, and in 1887 ballistite, a nearly smokeless powder especially suitable for propelling military projectiles. Nobel, the man who had tried to make handling explosives safe for workmen, was deeply troubled by the destructiveness of his inventions and became concerned with establishing worldwide peace.

Nobel died in 1896, leaving his considerable estate as an endowment for annual awards in chemistry, physics, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace-all of which represented his lifelong interests.
The information contained in this biography was last updated on December 13, 2017.

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One thousand times more powerful than black powder, dynamite expedited the building of roads, tunnels, canals, and other construction projects worldwide in the second half of the 19th century. Today its inventor's name is well known, but more for prizes of peace and of achievement than for explosives.

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BBC - History - Historic Figures: Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)

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invented dynamite, established the Nobel prizes