Alfred Nobel, talented Swedish inventor. Photo: Wikipedia

On October 21, 1833, the phenomenon of experimental chemistry was born, academician without formal education, Ph.D., founder of the foundation for awarding the Alfred Nobel Prize.

A talented Swedish inventor who spent most life in Russia, "blew up" global community 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 last 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, London Royal Society 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 the high school level. 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; drove employees to work free transport. 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 before today- 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”.

Everyone knows that the most prestigious award a scientist can receive for his work is the Nobel Prize.

Every year in Sweden, the Nobel Committee reviews applications from the most outstanding scientists of our time and decides who deserves the prize this year. various industries Sciences. The fund from which the prizes are paid was created by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. This scientist received huge sums of money for his developments, and bequeathed almost all of his earnings to the foundation named after him. But what did Alfred Nobel invent that formed the basis for the Nobel Prizes?

Talented self-taught

Paradoxically, Alfred Nobel, the author of more than 350 inventions, had no education at all except at home. However, this was not uncommon in those days when the content schooling depended entirely on the owners of the educational institution. Alfred's father, Emmanuel Nobel, was not poor and very educated person, a successful architect and mechanic.

Since 1842, the Nobel family moved from Stockholm to St. Petersburg, where Emmanuel developed for the Russian army military equipment and even opened several factories where it was produced. However, over time, things did not go so well, the factories went bankrupt, and the family returned to Sweden.

Invention of dynamite

Since 1859, Alfred Nobel became interested in the technology of making explosives. At that time, the most powerful of them was nitroglycerin, but its use was extremely dangerous: the substance exploded at the slightest shock or impact. After many experiments, Nobel invented an explosive composition called dynamite - a mixture of nitroglycerin with an inert substance that reduced the danger of its use.

Dynamite very quickly became in demand in mining, for large-scale excavation work and in a number of other industries. Its production brought significant wealth to the Nobel family.

Other Nobel inventions

During his long and fruitful life, Alfred Nobel became the owner of 355 patents for inventions, and not all of them related to explosives. The most famous of his works were:

- a series of ten detonator caps, one of which is used in explosives to this day under the name “detonator No. 8”;

- “explosive jelly” - a gelatinous mixture of nitroglycerin with collodion, superior to dynamite in explosive power, which today is known as an intermediate raw material for the manufacture of safer explosives;


- ballistite is a smokeless powder based on nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose, used today in mortar and gun shells, as well as as rocket fuel;

— an oil pipeline as a way to transport crude oil from the field to processing, which reduces the cost of oil production by 7 times;

— improved gas burner for lighting and heating;

- new design of water meter and;

— refrigeration unit for domestic and industrial use;

— a new, cheaper and safer method for producing sulfuric acid;

- a bicycle with rubber tires;

- improved steam boiler.

The inventions of Nobel and his brothers brought considerable income to the family, making the Nobels very wealthy people. But their fortunes were honestly earned by their own intelligence, talent and enterprise.

Alfred Nobel's charity

Thanks to his inventions, Nobel became the owner of several successful businesses. They not only produced technical products that were advanced at the time, but also maintained orders that were very different in better side from a normal factory environment. Nobel created comfortable living conditions for his workers - he built houses and free hospitals for them, schools for their children, and introduced free transportation for workers to and from the factory.

Despite the fact that many of his inventions had a military purpose, Nobel was a staunch pacifist, so he spared no expense in promoting the peaceful coexistence of states. He donated a lot of money for holding international peace congresses and conferences in defense of peace.

At the end of his life, Nobel drew up his famous will, according to which the bulk of his fortune after the death of the inventor went to the foundation that was later named after him. The capital left by Nobel was invested in securities, the income from which for more than a hundred years has been annually distributed among those who, in the general opinion, brought greatest benefit to humanity:

— in physics;

— in chemistry;

- in medicine or physiology;

- in literature;

- in promoting peace and oppression, uniting the peoples of the planet.


A prerequisite for awarding the prize is the exclusively peaceful nature of the discovery or development. The Nobel Prizes are the most honorary award for scientists all over the world, a sign of their highest achievements in the scientific field.

In 1874, the Italian Ascanio Sobrero managed to develop an oil with very explosive properties - nitroglycerin. But the oil was difficult to handle and would explode even if carelessly shaken too much, making it dangerous to transport and use. It was only when it was mixed with diatomaceous earth that the explosive became usable and in many ways changed the world, receiving the name “dynamite” from its inventor, Alfred Nobel.

Dynamite has proven to be extremely useful for various construction work, it was used to build everything from roads and mines to railroads and ports. Dynamite contributed to global economic development and became a major ingredient and product of Alfred Nobel's international industrial network.

But Nobel was not happy with the use of dynamite in the military field, and in 1895, a year before his death, he decided to bequeath his enormous fortune to a foundation that would award prizes in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and work for the good of peace . These awards are known as Nobel Prizes.

Son of an Inventor

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm. His father's name was Immanuel Nobel, he was a builder and also engaged in invention, but with varying degrees of success. When Alfred was little, the family had such a hard time that they decided to move to St. Petersburg and build a new one there. better life. Immanuel Nobel went first in 1837, and when money became better, he moved his family there - his wife Andrietta Nobel and sons Robert, Ludwig and Alfred.

Soon after all the Nobels settled in St. Petersburg, another, fourth, son was born in the family - Emil. In total, Immanuel and Andrietta Nobel had eight children, but four of them died in childhood. In St. Petersburg, Immanuel Nobel was also involved in the production of mines and steam engines, and he managed to achieve a fairly good position.

Robert, Ludwig and Alfred received a thorough interdisciplinary education: they studied classic literature and philosophy and, in addition native language, spoke four more fluently. The older brothers decided to focus on mechanics, while Alfred studied chemistry.

Alfred was especially interested experimental chemistry. At the age of 17, he went abroad for two years on a study trip, during which he met famous chemists and took from them practical lessons. The Nobel brothers also worked in their father's factory, and if anything Alfred seems to have inherited his father's interest in carrying out daring and life-threatening experiments.

Lethal experiments with nitroglycerin

So, nitroglycerin was invented - a mixture of sulfuric acid, nitric acid and glycerin, and although it was still new and undeveloped, Messrs. Nobel was also very familiar with it. However, no one really knew how to use this substance. It was clear that if we put no a large number of nitroglycerin on a workbench and hit it with a hammer, it will explode, or at least the part of it that was hit by the hammer will explode. The problem is that the nitroglycerin explosion was difficult to completely control.

In 1858, the factory of Alfred Nobel's father went bankrupt. Father and mother moved back to Sweden with youngest son Emil, and Robert Nobel went to Finland. Ludwig Nobel founded his own mechanical workshop, where Alfred Nobel apparently also helped - and at the same time carried out various experiments with nitroglycerin.

The work gained momentum when Alfred Nobel moved to Stockholm. He received his first Swedish patent for a method of producing “Nobel's explosive oil,” as he called nitroglycerin. Together with his father and brother Emil, he began producing the substance on an industrial scale in Heleneborg.

Alfred and Immanuel Nobel wanted to create a safe explosive, but manufacturing process was not safe at all. For the first time, experiments had truly tragic consequences: in 1864, the laboratory blew up, and several people, including Emil Nobel, died. The Nobel gentlemen simply did not realize how much dangerous substance deal and how risky it is to conduct experiments in the city.

Explosion accidents also occurred outside Sweden, and many countries introduced legislation prohibiting the use and transport of Nobel's explosive oil. Stockholm authorities have, for obvious reasons, banned the production of nitroglycerin in the city. Tens of thousands of people actually laid their lives on the experiments that were carried out in Nobel's factories, many died because the product his company supplied was so dangerous.

“The brain is a very generator of impressions.” unstable nature, and anyone who has the impression that he is right only believes that he is right,” noted Alfred Nobel in one of his notebooks.

Nitroglycerin + diatomaceous earth = true

But despite all this, Alfred Nobel found an effective way to sell his product, and although the public feared the substance, nitroglycerin was soon being used to blow up everything from railway tunnels to mines. So only six weeks after the Heleneborg explosion, Alfred Nobel founded Nitroglycerin AB, the world's first nitroglycerin factory, and bought a plot of land with a house from Winterviken to continue his activities there.

In 1963, Alfred Nobel also received a patent for a detonator - a small capsule with a fuse that ignites other explosives, which was needed to make nitroglycerin explode via a cord. This became part of Nobel's greatest discovery, which was already very close.

Context

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The Conversation 11/08/2016 Two years later, in 1865, Nobel moved to Hamburg, Germany. After many difficulties and several more and less serious explosions, he finally invented dynamite. He mixed nitroglycerin with kieselguhr, a porous sedimentary rock composed of sediments diatoms, which he took from the banks of the Elbe River. As a result, he finally got a stable mixture with good explosive properties. He gave the mass an easy-to-use form of bars, which exploded only when the detonator was ignited.

The name dynamite comes from the Greek “dynamis”, which means “strength”: this idea probably appeared in connection with the then name of the electric motor - dynamo.

Dynamite made Alfred Nobel a world famous inventor. He received a patent for it in 1867, but the experiment was not yet over.

Nobel wanted to make dynamite even more powerful and give it water resistance, which was still missing. He mixed nitroglycerin with a small amount of pyroxylin and the result was explosive gelatin that could be used under water. 10 years after the invention of dynamite, he received a patent for his third great invention- ballistite, or Nobel powder, which was a mixture equal parts nitroglycerin and pyroxylin. The advantage of ballistite was its low smoke quality: when it exploded, very little smoke was produced.

While working in the laboratory, Alfred Nobel also developed business skills. He went to different countries and demonstrated his explosive and how to use it. Dynamite, for example, was used on a large scale in the construction of the world's third largest tunnel, the St. Gotthard Tunnel, passing through the Alps in Switzerland.

Lonely director in poor health

Given this state of affairs, Nobel moved his headquarters to Paris and bought a large villa on what was then Avenue de Malakoff (today called Avenue Poincaré). He created one of the first multinational enterprises in Europe with more than 20 subsidiaries and managed this business empire himself.

Alfred Nobel traveled around the world - to Scotland, Vienna and Stockholm - and wrote thousands of business letters. Dynamite was sold especially successfully in the USA, and factories were built in Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy. Even in Asia, one company appeared. Nobel seemed to enjoy making a lot of money. Despite this, he was not greedy and showed generosity towards those around him.

But Nobel’s health was poor: he regularly had angina attacks. It must be hard to handle the grueling administrative affairs of an entire international network of businesses on his own, and despite his efforts to support healthy image Life without tobacco and alcohol, Alfred Nobel often felt tired and sick.

“Alfred Nobel made a pleasant impression... Slightly below average height, with a dark beard, not beautiful, but not ugly facial features, which were enlivened only by the soft gaze of his blue eyes, and his voice sounded either melancholic or mocking.” — his friend Bertha von Suttner said about Alfred Nobel.

In 1889, Alfred Nobel moved to San Remo, where he set up a new laboratory. Italy bought a license for the production of its low-smoke powder, in addition, local climate was beneficial to his health, which improved slightly. He devoted all his time to invention and literature; in his house there was a big library, and his collection of fiction, for example, is preserved in the Nobel Library of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Alfred Nobel died in 1896 in his villa in San Remo. He was 63 years old. When Nobel's heirs went to San Remo to receive their share of the inheritance, they encountered a real surprise.

An astonishing testament

When Nobel's valid will was read, the audience was amazed. The will stated that Nobel's capital, which at the time of his death amounted to a dizzying 35 million Swedish kronor, would form the basis of a fund that would spend the proceeds of this amount annually on bonuses to people who had brought the "greatest benefit" to humanity during the year. The nationality of the nominee and his gender should not have mattered.

The profit was to be divided into five equal parts, each of which would become a prize in the field of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, as well as literature. The fifth prize was to go to the one who most contributed to the establishment of fraternal relations between people or the reduction of armies, in other words, fought for peace. Prizes in physics and chemistry were to be distributed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in physiology or medicine - by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, literary prize- by the Swedish Academy, and the Peace Prize - by a commission of five people elected by the Storting, the Norwegian parliament.

Multimedia

RIA Novosti 10/02/2017 The will became a world sensation. Swedish newspapers described Nobel as a famous inventor who retained an interest in Sweden despite spending his life abroad (although in reality he was simply homesick and was not a nationalist at all). The newspaper Dagens Nyheter stated that Nobel was a famous friend of the world:
“The inventor of dynamite was the most devoted and hopeful supporter of the peaceful movement. He was convinced that the more devastating the instruments of murder were, the sooner the madness of war would become impossible.”

However, the authenticity of the will was questioned, and those organizations that were tasked with distributing the bonuses were initially tormented by doubts. The Swedish king was also critical of the awards, especially the fact that they were supposed to be international. After legal disputes and intense protests from Nobel's relatives, a Nobel Committee was created to look after Nobel's condition and organize the distribution of prizes.

An idealist of sorts

Alfred Nobel's life was unusual in many ways. After moving from St. Petersburg, he had to fight for his inventions and his enterprise for ten years. In old age, being already successful businessman Alfred Nobel had more than 350 patents. But he lived a secluded life and rarely participated in public events.

In his youth, he faced difficulties due to the fact that he came up with ideas that he could not implement due to lack of resources. Perhaps that's why he decided to give away his millions unknown people who made significant discoveries - as a reward to unsettled, diligent and full of ideas individuals from any part of the world. Moreover, he himself said that the inherited condition is a misfortune that only contributes to the apathy of the human race.

Nobel considered establishing a prize many times, and he was very interested in working for the benefit of peace. Among other things, he had the idea of ​​creating a European peace tribunal. It is clear that he wanted to bequeath his fortune to causes that could support him own hobbies in life: science, literature and work for the good of the world.

The moral conflict that the inventor who created so many destructive weapons was an ardent supporter of peace, he himself apparently did not notice.

Alfred Nobel, who dedicated his life to creating increasingly powerful explosives used to cause death and destruction in war, also founded an important peace prize, and this created a contradictory impression. Apparently, Nobel perceived himself primarily as a scientist and believed that the application of inventions was no longer his business. As the newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote after his death, he believed that he could make war impossible simply by making the weapons terrible enough.

Piecing together Alfred Nobel's entire fortune has proven to be a massive undertaking. Nobel appointed his employee Ragnar Sohlman as executor of the will, and only three and a half years after Nobel's death the king was able to approve the charter and rules of the Nobel Committee. Due to the international nature of the prize, as well as the size of the prize money, it was treated with great respect from the very beginning. The first five Nobel Prizes were awarded on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, December 10, 1901.

Alfred Nobel never married, but he had a long affair with a young Austrian, Sofie Hess, who was 20 years old when they met. He was clearly in love with Sophie Hess and even bought her an apartment in Paris, but she never seemed to live up to his requirements for a potential wife, and when she finally found another life partner, their relationship ended in nothing.

“I am not an expert on people, I can only state facts,” wrote Alfred Nobel in a letter to Sophie Hess.

Nobel was very creative person, many ideas were constantly spinning in his head. “If 300 ideas come to my mind in a year, and at least one of them is applicable, I am already satisfied,” Alfred Nobel once wrote. He wrote down aphorisms and ideas for inventions in small notebooks, and from them one can get an idea of ​​the worldview of the inventor, who often walked around immersed in his thoughts:

"Railway protection: an explosive charge for a locomotive to destroy substances placed on the rails."

“A cartridge without a case. Gunpowder ignited by a small glass tube which is broken.”

“A gun with water sprayed into the muzzle to avoid smoke and recoil.”

"Soft glass"

"Production of aluminum."

And: “When we talk about understanding and reason, we thereby mean perception, which in our time is considered the norm for the majority educated people».

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel - chemist and engineer from Sweden, invented dynamite, explosive jelly, cordite.

The future scientist, a Swede by nationality, was born on October 21, 1833. Alfred's father was the autodidact inventor Immanuel Nobel, a peasant from the Nobelef district. The genius scientist became famous for making military mines, which were used by Russian artillery during Crimean War. For this invention, the Swede was presented with an imperial award.

Mother Andriette Nobel was a housewife and raised four sons: Alfred, Robert, Ludwig and Emil. The family first lived in Sweden, then moved to Finland, after which they emigrated to Russia, to St. Petersburg. Immanuel was not only involved in the arms business; Nobel’s father made a great contribution to the development of heating systems for houses using water steam. An engineer invented machines for assembling wheels for carts.

Nobel's children were educated at home. They had governesses who taught the brothers natural sciences, literature and European languages. By the end of their studies, the boys spoke Swedish, Russian, French, English and German languages. At the age of 17, Alfred was sent on a trip to Europe and the USA. In the capital of France, the young man managed to work with the scientist Théophile Jules Pelouse, who in 1936 determined what glycerin consists of. Pelusa, together with Ascanio Sobrero, worked on the creation of nitroglycerin in 1840-1843.

Under the guidance of the Russian scientist Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin, Alfred became interested in studying glycerol trinitrate. Scientific work ultimately led the young scientist to an invention that made the chemist famous. The main work in Nobel’s biography is considered to be the creation of dynamite, which was recorded on May 7, 1867.

Science and inventions

From France Nobel goes to the United States for collaboration in the laboratory of the American inventor of Swedish origin John Erickson, who developed the warship "Monitor", which participated in civil war northerners and southerners. The scientist also studied the properties solar energy. A young student, under the guidance of a master, conducts independent chemical and physical experiments.

Returning to Stockholm, Nobel does not stop there. The chemist is working on the search active substance, reducing the explosion hazard of glycerol trinitrate. As a result of one experiment, which was carried out at the Nobel factories in Stockholm, an explosion occurred on September 3, 1864. The accident claimed the lives of several people, including Emil's younger brother. At the time of the disaster young man barely 20 years old. The father did not survive the loss, fell ill after a stroke and did not get up until his death.

A month after the tragedy, Alfred managed to obtain a patent for nitroglycerin. After this, the engineer patented the creation of dynamite, a gelatin dynamite detonator and other explosives. The scientist also succeeded in the development of household appliances: a refrigeration apparatus, a steam boiler, a gas burner, a barometer, and a water meter. The chemist made 355 inventions in the fields of biology, chemistry, optics, medicine, and metallurgy.

Nobel was the first to develop the chemical composition of artificial silk and nitrocellulose. The scientist popularized each invention through lectures demonstrating the capabilities of the device or substance. Such presentations by the chemical engineer were famous among the unsophisticated public, Nobel's colleagues and friends.

Dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel

Nobel was fond of writing literary works, art books. The chemist's outlet was poetry and prose, which the scientist wrote in his free time. One of Alfred Nobel's controversial works was the play "Nimesis", which long years was prohibited from publication and production by church officials, and only in 2003, on the day of remembrance of the scientist, was it staged by the Stockholm drama theater.

Alfred Nobel's play "Nemesis"

Alfred was interested in science, philosophy, history and literature. Nobel's friends were famous artists, writers, scientists, and statesmen of that time. Nobel was often invited to receptions and royal dinners. The inventor was an honorary member of many European academies of sciences: Swedish, English, Paris, Uppsala University. His track record includes French, Swedish, Brazilian, Venezuelan orders and awards.

The Nobel family experienced financial difficulties associated with constant spending on experiments. But ultimately the brothers acquired a stake in Baku oil field and got rich.

On International Congress World, which took place in Paris in 1889, Nobel gave his own lectures. This caused sarcasm among some of the event participants. It was impossible for many leading figures in the world to understand how a person who had invented a weapon of murder and war could appear at a peace meeting. In the press, Alfred was called “the king of murders,” “a millionaire on blood,” and “a profiteer in explosive death.” This attitude towards the scientist upset him and almost broke him.

Personal life

Alfred Nobel lived as a bachelor and did not have a wife. The first girl the future scientist fell in love with was a young pharmacist. Soon after meeting Nobel, the young lady died of tuberculosis. Alfred did not cry for his beloved for long, the engineer’s attention was attracted by the dramatic actress, and Nobel even asked his mother for her blessing for the marriage. But the far-sighted Andrietta did not approve of her son’s choice. After breaking up with the theater star, Alfred went to work and stopped searching for a life partner.

But in 1874 in personal life the scientist there were changes. In search of a secretary, Alfred met Countess Bertha Kinski, who soon became the scientist's lover. After several years of passionate friendship, the girl left her admirer and went to the capital of Austria to another groom.

In recent years, Alfred was attacked by an uneducated peasant woman who dreamed of becoming the wife of a famous engineer. But Alfred Nobel categorically rejected the girl’s claims.

In 1893, Alfred Nobel drew up his first will, which stated that a significant part of the scientist’s capital should be transferred after the death of the chemist Royal Academy Sci. It was planned to open a fund with the transferred amount, which would annually transfer the reward for discoveries. At the same time, Nobel bequeathed 5% of the inheritance to Stockholm University, Stockholm Hospital and Karolinska medical university.

Alfred Nobel's will

But two years later the will was changed. The document already canceled payments to relatives and organizations, and recommended the creation of a fund in which the scientist’s capital would be kept in the form of shares and bonds. Income from securities was obliged to be divided equally into five premiums annually. Each award (now the Nobel Prize) would recognize discoveries in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace movements.

Death

On December 10, 1896, the engineer died from the consequences of a stroke in his own villa in San Remo. The scientist’s ashes were transported to his homeland and buried in the Norra cemetery.

Alfred Nobel's grave

Three years passed after the will was opened and until Alfred Nobel’s will was executed. After the formalities were settled by the Swedish Parliament in 1901, the first monetary awards were paid to distinguished scientists.

• According to rumors, Alfred came up with his main invention by accident: while transporting nitroglycerin, one bottle broke, the substance fell on the ground and an explosion occurred. But the scientist himself did not confirm this version. Nobel claimed that he achieved the necessary result through painstaking experiments.
• Alfred Nobel was buried by the public while alive in 1888. Journalists took the erroneous message about the death of the scientist’s elder brother as news about the death of Alfred Nobel and hastened to cover such a joyful event for them. In those days, Alfred learned how negatively society perceived the scientist's discoveries. Being a pacifist, Nobel came up with a way to forever clear his own name by bequeathing capital to future generations of scientists and peacemakers.

• Scientists wondered why Nobel did not award a prize for achievements in mathematics. Many agreed that Alfred had a personal grudge against the mathematician Mittag-Leffler. But in fact, Alfred Nobel considered this science to be an auxiliary tool for conducting research in the fields of chemistry and physics.
• A century later, in the United States, the editor of a satirical publication, Mark Abrahams, organized the Ig Nobel Prize, which began to be awarded to inventors for the most unusual and unnecessary achievements.

Academician, experimental chemist, Doctor of Philosophy, academician, founder of the Nobel Prize, which made him world famous.

Childhood

Alfred Nobel, whose biography is of sincere interest to the modern generation, was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. He came from the peasantry of the Swedish southern district of Nobelef, which became the derivative of the surname known throughout the world. In addition to him, the family had three more sons.

Father Immanuel Nobel was an entrepreneur who, having gone bankrupt, dared to try his luck in Russia. He moved in 1837 to St. Petersburg, where he opened workshops. After 5 years, when things started to improve, he moved his family to live with him.

The first experiments of a Swedish chemist

Once in Russia, 9-year-old Nobel Alfred quickly mastered the Russian language, in addition to which he was fluent in English, Italian, German and French. The boy received his education at home. In 1849, his father sent him on a trip to America and Europe, which lasted two years. Alfred visited Italy, Denmark, Germany, France, America, but the young man spent most of his time in Paris. There he passed practical course physics and chemistry in the laboratory of the famous scientist Jules Pelouz, who studied oil and discovered nitriles.

Meanwhile, the affairs of Immanuel Nobel, a talented self-taught inventor, improved: in the Russian service he became rich and famous, especially during the Crimean War. His factory produced mines used in the defense of Kronstadt in Finland and Revel Harbor in Estonia. The merits of Nobel Sr. were rewarded with an imperial medal, which, as a rule, was not awarded to foreigners.

After the end of the war, orders stopped, the enterprise stood idle, and many workers were left out of work. This forced Immanuel Nobel to return back to Stockholm.

Alfred Nobel's first experiments

Alfred, who had close contact with famous Nicholas Zinin, meanwhile, began to closely study the properties of nitroglycerin. In 1863, the young man returned to Sweden, where he continued his experiments. September 3, 1864 occurred terrible tragedy: during the experiments, the explosion of 100 kilograms of nitroglycerin killed several people, among whom was 20-year-old Emil, Alfred's younger brother. After the incident, Alfred's father became paralyzed, and for the last 8 years he remained bedridden. During this period, Immanuel continued to work actively: he wrote 3 books, for which he himself made illustrations. In 1870, he was excited by the issue of using waste from the wood industry, and Nobel Sr. came up with plywood, inventing a method of gluing using a pair of wooden plates.

Invention of dynamite

On October 14, 1864, the Swedish scientist took out a patent that allowed him to produce an explosive that contained nitroglycerin. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1867; its production subsequently brought the scientist the main wealth. The press of that time wrote that the Swedish chemist made his discovery by accident: it was as if a bottle of nitroglycerin had broken during transportation. The liquid spilled, soaked the soil, resulting in the formation of dynamite. Alfred Nobel did not accept the above version and insisted that he was deliberately searching for a substance that, when mixed with nitroglycerin, would reduce the explosiveness. The desired neutralizer was kieselguhr, a rock also called tripoli.

A Swedish chemist set up a laboratory for the production of dynamite in the middle of a lake on a barge, far from populated areas.

Two months after the floating laboratory began operating, Aunt Alfreda introduced him to a merchant from Stockholm, Johan Wilhelm Smith, the owner of a million-dollar fortune. Nobel managed to convince Smith and several other investors to team up and form a venture industrial production nitroglycerin, which began in 1865. Realizing that a Swedish patent would not protect his rights abroad, Nobel patented his own rights to it and sold it worldwide.

Alfred Nobel's discoveries

In 1876, the world learned about the scientist’s new invention - an “explosive mixture” - a compound of nitroglycerin with collodion, which had a stronger explosive. The following years were rich in discoveries of the combination of nitroglycerin with other substances: ballistite - first smokeless gunpowder, then cordite.

Nobel's interests were not limited only to working with explosive substances: the scientist was interested in optics, electrochemistry, medicine, biology, designed safe steam boilers and automatic brakes, tried to make artificial rubber, studied nitrocellulose and There are about 350 patents to which Alfred Nobel claimed rights: dynamite, detonator, smokeless powder, water meter, refrigeration apparatus, barometer, combat rocket design, gas burner,

Characteristics of a scientist

Nobel Alfred was one of the most educated people of his time. The scientist read a large number of books on technology, medicine, philosophy, history, fiction, giving preference to his contemporaries: Hugo, Turgenev, Balzac and Maupassant, he even tried to write himself. The bulk of Alfred Nobel's works (novels, plays, poems) were never published. Only the play about Beatrice Cenci has survived - “Nemisis”, completed at the time of her death. This tragedy in 4 acts was met with hostility by the clergy. Therefore, the entire published edition, released in 1896, was destroyed after the death of Alfred Nobel, with the exception of three copies. The world had the opportunity to get acquainted with this wonderful work in 2005; it was played in memory of the great scientist on the Stockholm stage.

Contemporaries describe Alfred Nobel as a gloomy man who preferred calm solitude and constant immersion in work to the bustle of the city and cheerful companies. The scientist led a healthy lifestyle and had a negative attitude towards smoking, alcohol and gambling.

Being quite wealthy, Nobel really gravitated towards the Spartan lifestyle. Working on explosive mixtures and substances, he was an opponent of violence and murder, carrying out colossal work in the name of peace on the planet.

Inventions for peace

Initially, the explosives created by the Swedish chemist were used for peaceful purposes: for laying roads and railways, mining minerals, constructing canals and tunnels (using blasting). For military purposes, Nobel explosives began to be used only in Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871.

The scientist himself dreamed of inventing a substance or machine that had destructive power that made any war impossible. Nobel paid for congresses dedicated to issues of world peace, and he himself took part in them. The scientist was a member of the Paris Society of Civil Engineers, the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London. He had many awards, which he was very indifferent to.

Alfred Nobel: personal life

The great inventor - an attractive man - was never married and had no children. Closed, lonely, distrustful of people, he decided to find himself an assistant secretary and placed an advert in the newspaper. The 33-year-old Countess Bertha Sofia Felicita responded - an educated, well-mannered, multilingual girl who was without a dowry. She wrote to Nobel and received an answer from him; A correspondence ensued, arousing mutual sympathy on both sides. Soon there was a meeting between Albert and Bertha; The young people walked and talked a lot, and conversations with Nobel gave Bertha great pleasure.

Soon Albert left on business, and Bertha could not wait for him and returned home, where Count Arthur von Suttner was waiting for her - the sympathy and love of her life, with whom she started a family. Despite the fact that Bertha’s departure was a huge blow for Alfred, their warm and friendly correspondence continued until the end of Nobel’s days.

Alfred Nobel and Sophie Hess

And yet there was love in the life of Alfred Nobel. At the age of 43, the scientist fell in love with 20-year-old Sophie Hess, a flower shop saleswoman, moved her from Vienna to Paris, rented an apartment next to his house and allowed her to spend as much as she wanted. Sophie was only interested in money. The beautiful and graceful “Madame Nobel” (as she called herself), unfortunately, was a lazy person without any education. She refused to study with the teachers whom Nobel hired her.

The relationship between the scientist and Sophie Hess lasted 15 years, until 1891, when Sophie gave birth to a child from a Hungarian officer. Alfred Nobel parted peacefully with his young girlfriend and even assigned her a very decent allowance. Sophie married the father of her daughter, but constantly pestered Alfred with requests for an increase in support; after his death, she began to insist on this, threatening to publish his intimate letters if he refused. The executors, who did not want their client’s name to be splashed around in newspapers, made concessions: they bought Nobel’s letters and telegrams from Sophie and increased her annuity.

From childhood, Nobel Alfred was characterized by poor health and was constantly ill; in recent years he was tormented by heart pain. Doctors prescribed nitroglycerin to the scientist - this circumstance (a kind of irony of fate) amused Alfred, who devoted his life to working with this substance. Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896 at his villa in San Remo from a cerebral hemorrhage. The grave of the great scientist is located in the Stockholm cemetery.

Alfred Nobel and his prize

When Nobel invented dynamite, he saw its use in aiding development. human progress, not murderous wars. But the persecution that began over such a dangerous discovery pushed Nobel to the idea that he needed to leave behind another, more significant trace. Thus, the Swedish inventor decided to establish a personal prize after his death, writing a will in 1895, according to which the bulk of his acquired fortune - 31 million crowns - goes to a specially created fund. The income from investments should be distributed each year in the form of bonuses to the people who brought the greatest benefit to humanity during the previous year. The interest is divided into 5 parts and is intended for a scientist who has made an important discovery in the field of chemistry, physics, literature, medicine and physiology, and has also made a significant contribution to maintaining peace on the planet.

Alfred Nobel's special wish was that the nationality of candidates not be taken into account.

The first Alfred Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901 to the physicist Roentgen Conrad for the discovery of the rays that bear his name. The Nobel Prizes, which are the most authoritative and honorable international awards, have had a huge impact on the development of world science and literature.

Also, Alfred Nobel, whose will amazed many scientists with its generosity, went down in scientific history as the discoverer of “Nobelium” - chemical element, named after him. The Stockholm Institute of Physics and Technology and Dnepropetrovsk University are named after the outstanding scientist.