Alfred Nobel, talented Swedish inventor. Photo: Wikipedia
On October 21, 1833, the phenomenon of experimental chemistry was born, an academician without formal education, Doctor of Philosophy, founder of the foundation for awarding the prize named after Alfred Nobel.
A talented Swedish inventor, who spent most of his life in Russia, “blew up” the world community with the invention of dynamite. In 1863, he patented the use of nitroglycerin in technology in Sweden - for the first time after eight hundred years of the dominance of black gunpowder, civilization received a new explosive! Soon - patents for a detonator, dynamite...
Alfred Nobel wanted to see the application of his scientific developments exclusively in peaceful life. Paradoxically, he also created explosives. They were adopted by the army. But creative projects with the help of his explosives quickly changed the world: rapid mining of rocks for the extraction of ores, coal, oil and gas, tunneling, and later rocket flights became possible. So the dynamite invented by Nobel was in demand all over the world, and its creator became incredibly rich in a few years. Although Alfred Nobel, being an ascetic in everyday life, spent a lot of money on the development of science, by the end of his life he had 31 million crowns left, which he donated to the creation Nobel Prize.
The great Swede was not deprived of a peculiar sense of humor. For example, in recent years In his life he was especially tormented by heart pain, and he remarked about his treatment: “Isn’t it ironic that I was prescribed nitroglycerin! Doctors call it trinitrine so as not to scare off pharmacists and patients.”
Alfred Nobel was not an exceptional case in his family - his father Immanuel, an architect, builder, entrepreneur, became famous for his inventions in various areas, and siblings Robert and Ludwig radically re-equipped and developed the oil industry. Alfred himself filed 355 patents, including the right to the design of a gas burner, water meter, barometer, refrigeration apparatus, and an improved method for producing sulfuric acid. Alfred Nobel was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London and the Paris Society of Civil Engineers.
Alfred was born in Stockholm, and from the age of 8 he lived with his family in St. Petersburg, therefore he considered Russia his second homeland. He spoke Swedish, Russian, English, German, Italian. A man of high education and phenomenal intelligence, Alfred Nobel officially did not have any education, not even a level high school. After self-education at home, his father sent the young Alfred on an educational journey through the Old and New Worlds. There he met prominent scientists and became infected with invention.
Returning home, he began to actively study nitroglycerin. At that time, many people died from inept handling of this hellish “oil”. Tragedy also happened to the Nobels - during an experiment, an explosion occurred and killed eight people along with the laboratory. Among the dead was a twenty-year-old boy, the younger brother of the Nobels, Emil-Oscar. Their father was paralyzed and died eight years later.
The Nobel brothers continued to be involved in science and industry. They all invested in the development of science. Especially generous - Alfred. Even for the workers at his enterprises, he created comfortable conditions life and work - he built houses, schools and hospitals, where the courtyards were decorated with fountains and flower beds; Provided employees with free transportation to work. About the use of his inventions by the military, he said: “For my part, I wish that all the guns with all their accessories and servants could be sent to hell, that is, to the most appropriate place for them.” Alfred Nobel allocated funds for congresses in defense of peace. On December 10, 1896, his life ended with a cerebral hemorrhage, this happened in the Italian town of San Remo.
Among Alfred Nobel's 355 patented inventions, there were more and less significant ones for the development of mankind. But five of them are an undoubted breakthrough in science and fundamental innovations in practical use.
1. In 1864, Alfred Nobel created a series of ten blasting caps. They differed little from each other, but detonator cap No. 8 found the widest use, and that is what it is still called, although there is no other numbering. Detonators are needed to detonate the charge. The fact is that the charges react poorly to other influences, but they are good at picking up even a tiny explosion near them. And the detonator is created in such a way that it reacts to a minor impact - a flame or even a spark, friction, impact. The detonator easily “picks up” the conditions for an explosion and brings it to the charge.
2. In 1867, Alfred Nobel curbed the uncontrollable nitroglycerine and created dynamite. To do this, he mixed volatile nitroglycerin with kieselguhr, a porous rock also called mountain flour and infusor soil. It is found in abundance at the bottom of reservoirs, so the material is accessible and cheap, but it completely suppresses the explosive nitroglycerin. The paste-like substance can be molded and transported - it does not explode without a detonator, even from shaking and arson. Its power is slightly lower than nitroglycerin, but it is still 5 times more powerful than its predecessor explosive - black powder. Dynamite was first used in the United States during the construction of the Pacific Railroad. Now the compositions of dynamites are different. They are little used in military affairs, often in the mining industry and for tunneling.
3. In 1876, Alfred Nobel obtained explosive jelly by combining nitroglycerin and deck. The mixture of two explosives created a super-explosive, superior in power to dynamite. This is a jelly-like transparent substance, which is why the first names were explosive jelly, dynamite gelatin. Modern chemists know the substance as gelignite. Kolodium is a thick liquid, a solution of pyroxylin (nitrocellulose) in a mixture of ether and alcohol. And after testing the combination of nitroglycerin with wood, experiments followed with the combination of nitroglycerin with potassium nitrate, with wood pulp. IN modern production Explosive jelly is usually used as an intermediate raw material for the preparation of other explosives - ammonium nitrate and gelatin dynamite.
4. Alfred Nobel’s registration of a patent for ballistite in 1887 turned into a scandal. This is one of the first nitroglycerin smokeless powders, consisting of powerful explosives - nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. Ballistites have been used to this day - they are used in mortars, artillery pieces, and also as solid rocket fuel if a little aluminum or magnesium powder is added to them to increase the heat of combustion. But ballistite also has a “descendant” - cordite. The difference in composition is minimal and the preparation methods are almost identical. Nobel assured that the description of the production of ballistite also included a description of the production of cordite. But other scientists, Abel and Dewar, indicated a type of substance with a volatile solvent that was more convenient for the production of cordite, and the right to invent cordite was assigned to them by the court. The final products, ballistite and cordite, have a lot in common in their properties.
5. In 1878, Alfred Nobel, while working at a family oil production company, invented an oil pipeline - a method of continuous transportation of a liquid product. It was built, like everything progressive, also with a scandal, because the oil pipeline, although it reduced the cost of production by 7 times, but unprecedentedly reduced the jobs of carriers of oil in barrels. The construction of the Nobel oil pipeline was completed in 1908, and dismantled not so long ago, that is, it served for more than a hundred years! And when its construction began, oil production was in its infancy - the product flowed by gravity from wells into earthen pits. It was scooped out of the pits in buckets into barrels, which were transported on carts to sailing ships, then along the Caspian Sea and the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod, and from there - throughout Russia. Ludwig Nobel installed steel tanks instead of pits and invented the cistern and tanker, which still serve industrialists today. Based on the ideas of his brother Alfred, he built steam pumps and applied new methods chemical cleaning oil. The product is of excellent quality, the best in the world, truly “black gold”.
INTRODUCTION
My work will examine the most prestigious prize in the world - the Alfred Nobel Prize, the history of its creation, the features of the award ceremony, as well as the laureates to whom it has been awarded over the past ten years.
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards, awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions, or major contributions to culture or society.
The prizes were established in accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel, drawn up in 1895, which provided for the allocation of funds for awards to representatives of the following five areas: literature, physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, and promoting world peace.
The Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize is also awarded to outstanding economists (Sweden, 1969). It is paid once a year from the funds of the fund created according to the will of businessman Alfred Nobel.
Currently, the Nobel Prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about 1.05 million euros or $1.5 million).
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED NOBEL
Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm. His father, Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872), a middle-class entrepreneur, having gone bankrupt, decided to try his luck in Russia and in 1837 moved to St. Petersburg. Here he opened mechanical workshops, and five years later, when business got better, he moved his family to St. Petersburg. For nine-year-old Alfred, Russian very soon became his second native language. In addition, he was fluent in English, French, German and Italian.
During Crimean War From 1853 to 1856, Nobel's workshops produced underwater mines and other weapons for the Russian navy. Immanuel Nobel was awarded a gold medal "For zeal and development of Russian industry", but after the end of the war there were no more naval orders, and in 1859 he returned to Stockholm.
Alfred Nobel did not receive a systematic education. At first he studied at home, then traveled throughout America and Europe for educational purposes, and after that he studied chemistry in Paris for two years in the laboratory of the famous French scientist T. Pelouz. After his father left for Stockholm, Alfred Nobel began researching the properties of nitroglycerin. Perhaps this was facilitated by Nobel’s frequent communication with the outstanding Russian chemist Zinin. But on September 3, 1864, Stockholm was rocked by a powerful explosion. One hundred kilograms of nitroglycerin, waiting to be sent to the new factory of the Nobel brothers, turned the building into ruins and buried all the workers under the rubble. Swedish newspapers wrote in horror: “There were no corpses there, only a pile of meat and bones.” Alfred escaped with minor wounds on his face, but the worst news awaited him ahead: during the disaster, his younger brother Emil, who had come to visit his relatives on vacation, died along with the workers. When my father was informed about what had happened, he was silent for several minutes, then jerked his head as if about to say something, and fell awkwardly into a chair: the old man was paralyzed.
October 1864 Alfred Nobel took out a patent for the right to produce an explosive containing nitroglycerin. This was followed by patents for the detonator ("Nobel fuse"), dynamite, gelled dynamite, smokeless powder, etc. etc. In total, he owns 350 patents, and not all of them are related to explosives. Among them are patents for a water meter, a barometer, a refrigeration apparatus, a gas burner, an improved method for producing sulfuric acid, the design of a combat missile, and much more. Nobel's interests were extremely diverse. He studied electrochemistry and optics, biology and medicine, designed automatic brakes and safe steam boilers, tried to make artificial rubber and leather, studied nitrocellulose and artificial silk, and worked on producing light alloys. Of course, he was one of the most educated people of his time. He read many books on technology and medicine, history and philosophy, fiction (and even tried to write himself), was acquainted with kings and ministers, scientists and entrepreneurs, artists and writers, for example, Victor Hugo. Nobel was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, and the Paris Society of Civil Engineers. Uppsala University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Philosophy. Among the inventor's awards are the Swedish Order of the Polar Star, the French Legion of Honor, the Brazilian Order of the Rose and the Venezuelan Bolivar. But all the honors left him indifferent. He was a gloomy man who loved solitude, avoided fun companies and completely immersed in work.
In June 1865 Alfred moved to Hamburg. Albert staged an advertising display of explosives, calmly held bottles of nitroglycerin in boiling water, smashed them on a stone platform, set them on fire with a torch - the explosives behaved calmly. Everyone was confident in the possibility of complete control of this substance, but just two months later, in November 1865, explosions occurred at two mines in Sweden, then Nobel’s own plant in Krummel flew into the air, a few days later, the explosion of a nitroglycerin plant shocked the United States, and Soon ships carrying nitroglycerin began to die. Panic began. Many countries have passed laws prohibiting the production and transportation of nitroglycerin and substances containing it on their territories. The family was completely ruined. Shipping companies and the families of the victims filed huge lawsuits. But Nobel did not break. Patented May 7, 1867 trademark"Dynamite", Nobel began to collect huge profits. Newspapers of those years wrote that the engineer made his discovery by accident. During transportation, a bottle of nitroglycerin broke, the spilled liquid soaked the ground, and the result was dynamite. Nobel always denied this. He claimed that he was deliberately looking for a substance that, when mixed with nitroglycerin, would reduce its explosiveness. Kieselguhr became such a neutralizer. This rock is also called tripoli (from Tripoli in Libya, where it was mined). It may seem strange that a man who devoted his entire life to creating powerful means of destruction bequeathed part of the money he earned to the peace prize. What is this? Atonement for sins? But for military purposes, “Nobel’s explosives” began to be used only during Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871, and at first the explosives he created were used for peaceful purposes: for the construction of tunnels and canals using blasting, laying iron and highways, mining. He himself said: “I would like to invent a substance or machine with such destructive power that any war would become impossible.” Nobel gave money for congresses dedicated to peace issues and took part in them.
When Nobel set out to create a “superweapon,” he formulated his “anti-war” position at that moment as follows: “My dynamite factories will sooner end the war than your congresses. On the day when two armies can mutually destroy themselves within a few seconds, all civilized Nations in terror will disband their armies." He retained the habit of thinking globally until the end of his days.
One thought haunted Alfred: who would get his gigantic fortune? The brothers did not live in poverty - the volumes of Baku oil production, owned by the Nobel family, at that time exceeded the volumes of oil produced in the United States and accounted for more than half of all world production. Alfred did not like distant relatives and, not without reason, considered them to be idlers waiting for his death. After racking his brain for days and nights, Nobel decided to create a special fund. I think one misunderstanding also played a role here. One day, namely on April 13, 1888, Alfred found an obituary in the morning newspaper, which said that he... had died. About the deceased it was said approximately in the spirit that he was a “dynamite king” and a “merchant of death”, and about his income: “a fortune made with blood.” (Perhaps for the first time Alfred Nobel was puzzled by the question: what do people all over the world think about him.) He did not immediately understand that the bungling author had confused him with his brother Ludwig... And then one night Nobel made a codicil in his will. The king of dynamite, the richest of men, wanted his wrists to be cut after death, just in case. More than anything else, he was afraid of being buried alive...
The realization that the wealth acquired mainly from dynamite, thanks to the foundation created under his will, would serve progress and the cause of peace, encouraged Nobel.
Nobel discovered that nitroglycerin in an inert substance such as diatomaceous earth (diatomaceous earth) became safer and more convenient to use, and he patented this mixture in 1867 under the name “dynamite.” He then combined nitroglycerin with another highly explosive substance, gunpowder, to create a clear, jelly-like substance that was more explosive than dynamite. Explosive jelly, as it was called, was patented in 1876. This was followed by experiments in making similar combinations with potassium nitrate, wood pulp, etc. A few years later, Nobel invented ballistite, one of the first nitroglycerin smokeless powders, consisting of one of the latest versions from equal parts of gunpowder and nitroglycerin. This powder would become a precursor to cordite, and Nobel's claim that his patent also included cordite would be the subject of bitter legal battles between him and the British government in 1894 and 1895.
Cordite also consists of nitroglycerin and gunpowder, and the researchers wanted to use the most nitrated variety of gunpowder, insoluble in mixtures of ether and alcohol, while Nobel proposed the use of less nitrated forms, soluble in these mixtures. The question was complicated by the fact that in practice it is almost impossible to prepare one of the forms in its pure form, without the admixture of the second. Ultimately, the court ruled against Nobel. Nobel accumulated a significant fortune from the production of dynamite and other explosives.
Alfred Nobel, Swedish experimental chemist and businessman, inventor of dynamite and other explosives, who wanted to found charitable foundation to be awarded a prize in his name, which brought him posthumous fame, he was distinguished by incredible contradictions and paradoxical behavior. Contemporaries believed that he did not correspond to the image of a successful capitalist of the turbulent era industrial development 2nd half of the 19th century Nobel gravitated towards solitude and peace, and could not tolerate the hustle and bustle of the city, although he lived most of his life in urban conditions, and he also traveled quite often. Unlike many of the business world tycoons of his time, Nobel could be called more of a “Spartan”, because he never smoked, did not drink alcohol, and avoided cards and other gambling.
Despite his Swedish origin, he was rather a cosmopolitan of the European persuasion, speaking fluent French, German, Russian and English languages as if they were family to him. Nobel's commercial and industrial activities could not prevent him from creating the largest library, where one could familiarize oneself with the works of such authors as Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, a supporter of the introduction of Darwin's theory of evolution into the laws of human existence, Voltaire, Shakespeare and other outstanding authors. Among the writers of the 19th century. Nobel most distinguished French writers; he admired the novelist and poet Victor Hugo, the master of the short story Guy de Maupassant, the outstanding novelist Honore de Balzac, from whose keen eye human comedy could not escape, and the poet Alphonse Lamartine.
Alfred's mother - Andrietta
He also loved the work of the refined Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev and the Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen. The naturalistic motives of the French novelist Emile Zola, however, did not inflame his imagination. Besides. he was impressed by the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose works even awakened in him the intention to devote himself to literary creativity. By this time, he had written a significant number of plays, novels and poems, of which, however, only one work was published. But then he lost interest in literature and directed all his thoughts towards a career as a chemist.
It was also easy for Nobel to puzzle his younger companions with actions that earned him a reputation as an ardent supporter of liberal social views. There was even an opinion that he was a socialist. which in reality was completely wrong, since he was a conservative in economics and politics, strongly opposed the granting of women's suffrage, and expressed serious doubts about the benefits of democracy. Nevertheless, few believed so much in the political wisdom of the masses, few despised despotism so much. As the employer of hundreds of workers, he showed a literally fatherly concern for their health and well-being, yet was unwilling to establish personal contact with anyone. With his characteristic insight, he came to the conclusion that a labor force with higher moral qualities was more productive than the brutally exploited masses, which may have earned Nobel his reputation as a socialist.
Nobel was completely unpretentious in life and even somewhat ascetic. He trusted few people and never kept diaries. Even for dining table and among his friends he was only an attentive listener, equally polite and delicate with everyone. The dinners he hosted at his home, in one of the fashionable districts of Paris, were festive and at the same time elegant: he was a hospitable host and an interesting conversationalist, able to provoke any guest into an exciting conversation. When circumstances required, it cost him nothing to use his wit, honed to the point of causticity, as evidenced, for example, by one of his fleeting remark: “All the French are in the happy confidence that mental abilities- an exclusively French heritage."
Alfred's father - Emmanuel
He was a slender man of average height, dark hair, with dark blue eyes and a beard. According to the fashion of that time, he wore pince-nez on a black cord.
Lacking good health, Nobel was sometimes capricious, secluded and in a depressed mood. He could work very hard, but then have difficulty achieving healing peace. He traveled frequently to try to take advantage of the healing powers of various mineral spring spas, a popular and accepted part of a health regimen at the time. One of his favorite places was the spring in Ischl, Austria, where he even kept a small yacht. He also really enjoyed visiting Baden bei Wien, near Vienna, where he met Sophie Hess. In 1876, she was a charming petite 20-year-old girl - at that time he was 43 years old. It was not surprising that Nobel fell in love with "Sophishen", a saleswoman flower shop, took her with him to Paris and put an apartment at her disposal. The young woman called herself Madame Nobel, but years later she somehow dropped that if they were connected by anything, it was financial assistance from him. Their relationship finally ended around 1891, several years before Nobel's death.
Despite his poor health, Nobel was able to throw himself into hard work. He had a great research mind and enjoyed working in his chemistry laboratory. Nobel managed his industrial empire scattered all over the world with the help of a whole “team” of directors of numerous independent companies, in which Nobel had a 20-30 percent share of capital. Despite his rather modest financial interest, Nobel personally reviewed numerous details of major decisions made by companies using his name in their name. According to one of his biographers, “in addition to scientific and commercial activities, Nobel spent a lot of time conducting extensive correspondence, and he copied every detail from business correspondence only himself, starting with issuing invoices and ending with accounting calculations.”
At the beginning of 1876, wanting to hire a housekeeper and part-time personal secretary, he advertised in one of the Austrian newspapers: “A wealthy and highly educated elderly gentleman living in Paris expresses a desire to hire a person mature age with language training for work as a secretary and housekeeper." One of those who answered the ad was 33-year-old Bertha Kinski, who was working as a governess in Vienna at the time. Having made up her mind, she headed to Paris for an interview and impressed Nobel with her appearance and speed of translation But just a week later, homesickness called her back to Vienna, where she married Baron Arthur von Suttner, the son of her former mistress. However, she was destined to meet Nobel again, and for the last 10 years of his life they corresponded, discussing projects. strengthening peace on Earth. Bertha von Suttner became a leading figure in the struggle for peace on the European continent, which was greatly facilitated by the financial support of the movement by Nobel. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905.
For the last five years of his life, Nobel worked with his personal assistant, Ragnar Solman, a young Swedish chemist distinguished by extreme tact and patience. Solman simultaneously served as secretary and laboratory assistant. The young man managed to please Nobel and win his trust so much that he called him nothing less than “the main executor of his desires.” “It was not always easy to serve as his assistant,” Solman recalled, “he was demanding in his requests, frank and always seemed impatient. Anyone dealing with him had to shake himself up properly to keep up with the leaps of his thoughts and be prepared for the most his amazing whims, when he suddenly appeared and disappeared just as quickly."
During his lifetime, Nobel often showed extraordinary generosity towards Solman and his other employees. When his assistant was getting ready to get married, Nobel immediately doubled his salary, and earlier, when his French cook was getting married, he gave her a gift of 40 thousand francs, a huge amount at that time. However, Nobel's philanthropy often extended beyond his personal and professional contacts. Thus, not being considered a zealous parishioner, he often donated money to the activities of the Paris branch of the Swedish Church in France, where he served as pastor in the early 90s. of the last century was Nathan Söderblum, who later became Archbishop of the Lutheran Church in Sweden and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm and became the fourth child in the family. He was born very weak, and his entire childhood was marked by numerous illnesses. IN teenage years Alfred developed a close and warm relationship with his mother, which remained so in later years: he often visited his mother and maintained a lively correspondence with her.
After unsuccessful attempts to organize his own business producing elastic fabric, hard times came for Emmanuel, and in 1837, leaving his family in Sweden, he went first to Finland, and from there to St. Petersburg, where he was quite actively involved in the production of powder-charged explosive compositions mines, lathes and machine accessories. In October 1842, when Alfred was 9 years old, the whole family came to his father in Russia, where increased prosperity made it possible to hire a private tutor for the boy. He showed himself to be a hardworking student, capable and showing a thirst for knowledge, especially interested in chemistry.
In 1850, when Alfred reached the age of 17, he went on an extended trip to Europe, during which he visited Germany, France, and then the United States of America. In Paris he continued to study chemistry, and in the United States he met John Ericsson, the Swedish inventor of the steam engine, who later developed a design for an armored warship (the so-called "monitor").
Returning to St. Petersburg three years later, Alfred Nobel began working for his father's company, Founderie et atelier mecanique Nobel et Fiy (Founders and Machine Shops of Nobel and Suns), a booming company that specialized in the production of ammunition during the Crimean War. war (1853...1856). At the end of the war, the company was repurposed to produce machines and parts for steamships built to sail in the Caspian Sea and Volga River basin. However, orders for peacetime products were not enough to cover the gap in War Department orders, and by 1858 the company began to experience a financial crisis. Alfred and his parents returned to Stockholm, while Robert and Ludwig remained in Russia with the goal of liquidating the business and saving at least part of the invested funds. Returning to Sweden, Alfred devoted all his time to mechanical and chemical experiments, receiving three patents for inventions. This work supported his subsequent interest in experiments carried out in a small laboratory that his father equipped on his estate in the suburbs of the capital.
At this time, the only explosive for mines (regardless of their purpose - for military or peaceful purposes) was black powder. However, it was already known then that nitroglycerin in solid form is an extremely powerful explosive, the use of which is associated with exceptional risk due to its volatility. No one at that time had been able to determine how to control its detonation. After several short experiments with nitroglycerin, Emmanuel Nobel sent Alfred to Paris to find a source of funding for research (1861); his mission was successful, because he managed to get a loan in the amount of 100 thousand francs. Despite his father's persuasion, Alfred refused to participate in this project. But in 1863 he managed to invent a practical detonator, which involved the use of gunpowder to explode nitroglycerin. This invention became one of the cornerstones of his reputation and prosperity.
Emil Osterman.
Portrait of Alfred Nobel
One of Nobel's biographers, Eric Bergengren, describes this device as follows:
"In its original form... [the detonator] was designed in such a way that the initiation of the explosion of liquid nitroglycerin, which was contained in a metal reservoir by itself or was poured into the core channel, was carried out by the explosion of a smaller charge inserted under the main charge, the smaller charge consisted of gunpowder enclosed in a wooden case with a stopper in which the igniter was placed."
To enhance the effect, the inventor repeatedly changed individual parts of the design, and as a final improvement in 1865, he replaced the wooden pencil case with a metal capsule filled with detonating mercury. With the invention of this so-called exploding primer, the principle of initial ignition was incorporated into the explosion technology. This phenomenon became fundamental for all subsequent work in this area. This principle turned into reality efficient use nitroglycerin, and subsequently - other evaporating explosives as independent explosive materials. In addition, this principle made it possible to begin studying the properties of explosive materials.
While perfecting the invention, Emmanuel Nobel's laboratory suffered an explosion that claimed eight lives, including Emmanuel's 21-year-old son, Emil. A short time later, my father suffered from paralysis, and he spent the remaining eight years of his life until his death in 1872 in bed, motionless.
Despite the resulting public hostility towards the production and use of nitroglycerin, Nobel in October 1864 convinced the board of the Swedish State Railways to accept the explosive he had developed for tunneling. To produce this substance, he obtained financial support from Swedish businessmen: the company Nitroglycerin, Ltd. was established. and the plant was built. During the first years of the company's existence, Nobel was managing director, technologist, head of the advertising bureau, head of the office and treasurer. He also held frequent roadshows for his products. Among the buyers was the Central Pacific Railroad (in the American West), which used nitroglycerin produced by Nobel's company to lay railroad tracks through the Sierra Nevada mountains. After receiving a patent for his invention in other countries, Nobel founded the first of his foreign companies, Alfred Nobel & Co. (Hamburg, 1865).
Photography in Sanremo
Although Nobel was able to resolve all major production safety issues, his customers were sometimes careless in handling explosives. This led to accidental explosions and deaths, and some bans on the import of dangerous products. Despite this, Nobel continued to expand his business. In 1866, he received a patent in the United States and spent three months there, obtaining funds for the Hamburg enterprise and demonstrating his “exploding oil.” Nobel decided to found American company, which, after some organizational measures, became known as Atlantic Giant Roader Co. (after Nobel’s death, it was acquired by E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Co.). The inventor felt cold shoulder from the outside American businessman, who passionately wanted to share with him the profits from the activities of companies producing liquid explosives. He later wrote: “Upon reflection, life in America seemed somewhat unpleasant to me. The exaggerated desire to squeeze out profit is pedantry, which can overshadow the joy of communicating with people and destroy the sense of respect for them at the expense of the idea of true incentives their activities."
Although nitroglycerin explosive, when used correctly, was effective material for blasting, it was so often responsible for accidents (including the one that leveled the Hamburg plant) that Nobel was constantly looking for ways to stabilize nitroglycerin. He unexpectedly came across the idea of mixing liquid nitroglycerin with a chemically inert porous substance. His first practical steps The chosen direction was the use of kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth), an absorbent material. Mixed with nitroglycerin, such materials could be shaped into sticks and inserted into drilled holes. The new explosive material, patented in 1867, was called “dynamite, or Nobel’s safe explosive powder.”
The new explosive made it possible to carry out such exciting projects as the construction of the Alpine Tunnel on the Gotthard Railway, the removal of underwater rocks at Hell Gate located in the East River (New York), the clearing of the Danube bed in the Iron Gate area or the construction of the Corinth Canal in Greece. Dynamite also became a means of drilling in the Baku oil fields, and the latter enterprise is famous for the fact that the two Nobel brothers, known for their activity and efficiency, became so rich that they were called only “Russian Rockefellers.” Alfred was the largest individual investor in the companies organized by his brothers.
Nobel's death mask
(Karlskoga, Sweden)
Although Alfred had patent rights to dynamite and other materials (obtained as a result of his improvements), registered in major countries in the 70s. XIX century, he was constantly haunted by competitors who stole his technological secrets. During these years, he refused to hire a full-time secretary or legal counsel, and therefore had to spend a lot of time litigating issues of infringement of his patent rights.
In the 70s and 80s. XIX century Nobel expanded the network of its enterprises in the main European countries due to the victory over competitors and through the formation of cartels with competitors in the interests of controlling prices and sales markets. Thus, he established a global chain of enterprises within national corporations for the purpose of producing and trading explosives, adding a new explosive to the improved dynamite. The military use of these substances began with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870...1871, but throughout Nobel’s life, the study of explosive materials for military purposes was an unprofitable enterprise. He received tangible benefits from his risky projects precisely through the use of dynamite in the construction of tunnels, canals, railways and highways.
Describing the consequences of the invention of dynamite for Nobel himself, Bergengren writes: “Not a day passed that he did not have to face vital problems: financing and forming companies; attracting conscientious partners and assistants to management positions, and suitable craftsmen and skilled workers - for direct production, which is extremely sensitive to compliance with technology and is fraught with a lot of dangers; the construction of new buildings on remote construction sites in compliance with intricate safety standards and regulations in accordance with the peculiarities of the legislation of each individual country. The inventor participated with all the passion of his soul in the planning and. introducing new projects, but rarely turned to his staff for help in working out the details of the activities of various companies."
Bust at the entrance to the villa where Alfred Nobel lived in San Remo
The biographer characterizes the ten-year cycle of Nobel's life that followed the invention of dynamite as "restless and nerve-wracking." After his move from Hamburg to Paris in 1873, he could sometimes retire to his personal laboratory, which occupied part of his house. To assist in this work he recruited Georges D. Fehrenbach, a young French chemist who worked with him for 18 years.
Given a choice, Nobel would most likely have preferred his laboratory activities to commercial activities, but his companies required priority attention as new factories had to be built to meet the increasing demand for explosives production. In 1896, the year of Nobel's death, there were 93 enterprises producing about 66,500 tons of explosives, including all its varieties, such as warheads and smokeless powder, which Nobel patented between 1887 and 1891. The new explosive could be a substitute for black powder and was relatively inexpensive to produce.
When organizing a market for smokeless gunpowder (ballistite), Nobel sold his patent to Italian government agencies, which led to a conflict with the French government. He was accused of stealing an explosive, depriving the French government of its monopoly; his laboratory was searched and closed; his business was also prohibited from producing ballistite. Under these conditions, in 1891, Nobel decided to leave France, establishing his new residence in San Remo, located on the Italian Riviera. Even without taking into account the ballistitis scandal, Nobel's Parisian years could hardly be called cloudless: his mother died in 1889, a year after the death of his older brother Ludwig. Moreover, commercial activity The Parisian stage of Nobel's life was overshadowed by the participation of his Parisian association in dubious speculation related to the unsuccessful attempt to build the Panama Canal.
At his villa in San Remo, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and surrounded by orange trees, Nobel built a small chemical laboratory, where he worked as soon as time permitted. Among other things, he experimented in the production of synthetic rubber and artificial silk. Nobel loved San Remo for its amazing climate, but also kept warm memories of the land of his ancestors. In 1894, he purchased an ironworks in Värmland, where he simultaneously built an estate and acquired a new laboratory. Last two summer seasons he spent his life in Värmland. In the summer of 1896, his brother Robert died. At the same time, Nobel began to suffer from heart pain.
At a consultation with specialists in Paris, he was warned about the development of angina pectoris associated with insufficient oxygen supply to the heart muscle. He was advised to go on vacation. Nobel moved again to San Remo. He tried to complete unfinished business and left a handwritten note of his dying wish. After midnight on December 10, 1896, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Apart from the Italian servants who did not understand him, no one close to him was with Nobel at the time of his death, and his last words remained unknown.
The origins of Nobel's will with the formulation of provisions on awarding awards for achievements in various fields human activity leave a lot of uncertainty. The document in its final form represents one of the editions of his previous wills. His posthumous gift for awarding prizes in the field of literature and the field of science and technology logically follows from the interests of Nobel himself, who was in contact with specified parties human activity: physics, physiology, chemistry, literature. There is also reason to assume that the establishment of prizes for peacekeeping activities is connected with the desire of the inventor to recognize people who, like him, steadfastly resisted violence. In 1886, for example, he told an English acquaintance that he had “a more and more serious intention of seeing the peaceful shoots of the red rose in this splitting world.”
As an imaginative inventor and businessman who exploited his ideas for industrial and commercial interests, Alfred Nobel was a typical representative of his time. The paradox is that he was a hermit seeking solitude, and world fame prevented him from achieving the peace in life that he so passionately sought.
Reconstruction of Alfred Nobel's laboratory. The scientist sits in the right corner.
Alfred Nobel is best known as the founder of the Nobel Prize Foundation, which bears his name and brought him worldwide fame. Nobel was an academician, Ph.D., inventor of dynamite, chemist and businessman.
Alfred was born on October 21, 1833 in the capital of Sweden. He was the third son in the family of Andrietta and Emmanuel Nobel. Alfred had seven brothers and sisters, but only three survived. In 1842, Emmanuel received a job developing torpedoes in Russian Empire, so the whole Nobel family moved to live in St. Petersburg. Soon, Alfred's father decided to send his son to study in Europe, so a year later Nobel, at the age of 16, left Russia.
For two years he visited America, Italy, France, Germany and Denmark, after which he returned back to Russia. He became involved in the affairs of factories owned by his family, which produced weapons for the Russian army. After bankruptcy in Russia, Alfred and his father returned to Sweden, where the young Nobel began to seriously study explosives, and in particular the use and safe production of nitroglycerin.
In 1868, he received a patent for dynamite, which he invented using nitroglycerin in combination with substances capable of absorbing it. Alfred gave numerous public demonstrations of the substance he discovered, and also gave lectures on the principles of its operation. Thanks to this, interest in Nobel's discovery constantly increased.
The next discovery of the scientist was the substance explosive jelly, which has an even higher explosiveness than dynamite. A patent for explosive jelly was received in 1876.
A couple of years later, Alfred and his assistant invented ballistite, which became one of the very first smokeless powders made from nitroglycerin. Almost immediately after the appearance of this powder, another substance appeared - cordite. Nobel claimed to have invented both substances, but ultimately only received a patent for ballistite.
Alfred Nobel accumulated quite a large fortune from a patent for the production of dynamite and other explosives he invented, as well as from the development of oil in the fields of Baku. Nobel also tried himself as a playwright. He wrote his only play, Nemesis, while he was dying. The entire edition, published in 1896 in Paris, with the exception of three copies, was destroyed because the church did not approve of the play. In 2003, a new edition was made based on one of the surviving publications, and in 2005, on the day of the scientist’s death, the play premiered in Stockholm.
Wrong news about own death, published in newspapers in 1888, greatly influenced Nobel. After reading what words he was called in printed publications (“dynamite king”, “millionaire on blood”, “merchant of death”), Alfred decided to take measures in order not to remain in history as a world villain. It was then that Nobel decided to create a legacy, the value of which would glorify his name for centuries.
In 1895, on November 27, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club of Paris, Alfred drew up his will, in which he gave most of his fortune to award prizes for scientific achievements regardless of nationality. The Nobel Prize fund at that time was 31 million crowns.
The famous scientist died in Italy at his Villa San Remo on December 10, 1896. The cause of his death was a cerebral hemorrhage; at that time he was 63 years old. Alfred Nobel's body is buried in Stockholm's Norra Begravningsplatsen cemetery.
After Nobel’s death on October 21, 1991, by decision of the Nobel Foundation, a bronze monument to this great scientist was erected on Petrogradskaya Embankment near the Nakhimov School, as a memory of him and his years spent in Russia.
Alfred Nobel went down in history as a controversial and significant figure. During his lifetime, society’s attitude towards him was rather negative, but his last actions left a trace in history of a completely different quality.
Childhood and youth of an outstanding inventor
Alfred Bernard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in largest city Sweden Stockholm. His family was going through difficult times at the time of the boy’s birth. Emmanuel Nobel and Andrietta Nobel had eight children. Only four of them survived difficult financial difficulties and family distress. They were the brothers Alfred, Ludwig, Robert and Emil.
In the Nobel family tree one could find a relationship with the famous Swedish engineer Olof Rudbeck. And the father of the family, Emmanuel himself, was known as a good engineer and inventor.
In 1837, Alfred Nobel's family moved to St. Petersburg. There financial luck turned to them, and parents had the opportunity to hire private teachers for their children. WITH early childhood Alfred showed great promise. He was interested in science and languages. In a short time he managed to master French, English, German and Russian.
After Alfred's seven-year stay in Russia, his father's companions recommended sending him to study in Europe and then in the States. In 1850, young Nobel went to Denmark. Then he studied in Germany, France, England and Italy.
In the capital of France, Alfred met the creator of nitroglycerin, Sobrero. The inventor was dissatisfied with the unstable properties of the substance he invented, so he asked Nobel not to use it in his developments. But the young man decided otherwise.
When Alfred turned 18, he left for America. There, the young man diligently studied chemistry, not giving up hope of replacing gunpowder, which is standard in weapons production, with nitroglycerin.
In the States, Nobel collaborated with Erickson himself, the developer of the battleship for the American army. In 1857 Alfred filed his first patent for registration. The topic of the patent was a gas meter invented by an engineer.
The mature years of Alfred Nobel
After finishing his studies abroad, Alfred Nobel decided to return to his family in Russia. There he successfully brought to new level functionality and turnover of family factories. Weapons production became even more profitable when the Crimean War began.
After hostilities ended, the Nobel family company went bankrupt, as the main plant could not be repurposed for peaceful needs.
That same year, Nobel's father decided to return to Sweden. He left his company in Russia under the supervision of his son Ludwig. To a young man managed to improve the situation in the company. Alfred returned to his homeland with his parents, and there he began further experiments with explosives.
In 1863, Nobel's experiments were crowned with success. He presented the detonator to the public. Alfred's success was accompanied by a tragedy in the family. His younger brother Emil died with other workers in a barn explosion.
The tragedy did not stop Alfred; he continued his scientific research. The inventor began to pay much more attention to the safety of his inventions. So in 1867 he managed to stabilize nitroglycerin, turning it into dynamite, for which Nobel received a patent in England and America.
Alfred Nobel actively disseminated information about the new “explosive” miracle, read lectures about dynamite, and participated in summits and conferences. Thanks to his activities, dynamite began to be used in mining, as well as in the construction industry.
In 1875, there was a period of improvement of the dynamite formula. A mixture called “explosive jelly” was born. Then Nobel invented ballistitis.
The success of his factories in financially was always opposed to the rejection of his activities by society. Nobel was called a “millionaire on blood”, and other unflattering epithets were attributed to him.
One day, when Alfred's brother Ludwig died, journalists mixed up the information and published an obituary in which Alfred's name appeared. This opus made a huge and stunning impression on the inventor. Nobel seemed to wake up and began to make attempts to correct the situation. After public uproar, he joined the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and then established the legendary Nobel Prize for scientists from all over the world, later adding a category for contributions to maintaining peace on Earth.
Nobel: personal life
The engineer and chemist was not very popular among women. He was withdrawn, uncommunicative, and passionate about his scientific research. History knows about three women who played an important role in the fate of Alfred Nobel.
The first of them is a youthful love named Alexandra. This relationship did not continue because the girl preferred someone else.
The second woman is Bertha Kinski. She worked as a secretary for Nobel and also married someone else. But she corresponded with Nobel until his death. They say that it was she who pushed the engineer to establish the prize.
With Sophie Hess romantic relationship Nobel's lasted 18 years. Although little is known about this relationship, as well as about others. One more fun fact From the biography of the inventor one can read his literary impulses. As an educated person, although he did not have an official diploma, Alfred knew many languages and was interested in art. He even tried himself as a writer. His play Nemesis was controversial because of the religious themes it dealt with. After his death, the circulation of the work was destroyed. However, three copies still survive.
After being accused of treason for trade deals with Italy, Alfred Nobel moved to Paris. There he died in his home from a cerebral hemorrhage. The date of his death is December 10, 1896. He was buried in his homeland in Stockholm. Almost all of his fortune went to pay the Nobel Prize to the best innovators.
