Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel , (October 21st 1833 with Stockholm, Sweden - December 10th 1896 with San Remo, Italy) is a Chimiste, Industriel and manufacturer of weapons Swedish. Inventor of the Dynamite, it had the company of armament Bofors. In its will, it bequeathed its immense fortune for the creation of the Nobel Prize. The chemical element nobelium was named thus in its honor.

Biography

Alfred Nobel is downward of Olof Rudbeck (1630 - 1702), scientist of the 17th century and the third wire of Emmanuel Nobel (1801 - 1872). Born with Stockholm, he moves in 1842 for Saint-Pétersbourg where his/her father, who had invented the Contreplaqué, assembles a company of marine mines. In 1859, this last leaves the company to his/her son Ludvig Nobel (1831 - 1888), who increases it considerably.

After the bankruptcy of the family company, Alfred leaves for America with his father, where it is dedicated entirely to the study of the Explosif S and in particular to the use and protected marketing of the Nitroglycérine (discovery in 1847 by Ascanio Sobrero, one of his/her classmates, under the direction of their Master Theophilus-Jules Pelouze with the Université of Turin).

During centuries, the gunpowder remained the only powerful explosive. In 1833 is discovered the Nitrocellulose (by A. Sobrero) and, in 1846, the Nitroglycérine. In 1871, Nobel founds KemaNobel, one of the companies at the origin of Akzo Nobel. Several explosions take place in the family factory of Heleneborg, including one particularly disastrous which kills, in 1864, Emil, the young brother of Alfred, like several employees.

He thus harnesses himself to return the use of less dangerous nitroglycerin, and is the first to have succeeded in controlling his explosive power. Nobel discovers that when nitroglycerin is mixed with an inert solid and absorbent called Kieselguhr (diatomacée ground), it becomes much surer to transport and handle, and remains stable until exploding under the effect of a Détonateur. He makes patent this invention in 1867, under the name of Dynamite. He uses it for the first time in a career with Redhill, in England (Surrey).

Alfred Nobel resides at Paris (France) starting from 1873 and, in 1881, it acquires old the Château of Sevran in Seine-et-Oise (current Seine-Saint-Denis). In its French laboratory, he invents a new explosive of power much higher than dynamite. Composed of nitroglycerin (93%) and Collodion (7%), “dynamite extra Nobel” (patent of 1875) is not other than the dynamite gums or dynamites plastic (not to be confused with the Plastic which is a mixture of hexogen and/or penthrite with an oil and a plasticizer).

It is said that it is the erroneous publication by a French newspaper of a premature Nécrologie, condemning his invention of dynamite in 1888 which decides it to leave a better image of him in the world after its death. The obituary said: “The merchant of death died. Dr. Alfred Nobel, who made fortune by finding the means of killing more people more quickly than ever before, died yesterday”.

In 1890, Alfred Nobel leaves France to settle in its villa located at the edge of the the Mediterranean, with Sanremo in Italy. The November 27th 1895, at the club suédo-Norwegian of Paris, Nobel puts a final point at its will by leaving the integrality of its fortune for the creation of the Nobel Prize.

He dies the December 10th 1896 with Sanremo in Italy and is buried with the cemetery of north to Stockholm.

Will

With his death, Nobel leaves 80 companies, distributed in a score of country. It was for example of Akzo Nobel and Nobel-Bozel.

Its will does not bequeath anything to its direct heirs, but he asks that with the 32 million crowns (: 4223500  USD) that it leaves in heritage, is created an institution which will undertake to reward each year the people who rendered to Humanity great services in five different fields (peace, literature, chemistry, physical medicine and ), by specifying that “the nationality of the preceded scientists should not play of role in the attribution of the price”. The five first Nobel Prize are then created.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation and the regulations on the institutions charged to decree the prices were promulgated on June 29th, 1900, but the prices were not distributed for the first time in 1901. When one had gathered the capital (dispersed in several countries) whose revenue feeds since 1901 the five prices, one obtained a sum rising to approximately thirty million Swedish crowns

A price of economy created by the royal Bank of Sweden in the honor of Alfred Nobel, created in 1969 and financed by other funds, will be more or less comparable thereafter for him. The equivalent of the Nobel Prize of mathematics is the Médaille Fields, price created in 1936.

Anecdote

  • the legend claims that Alfred Nobel would have refused to honor the Mathématiques to prevent that the price returns one day to Gosta Magnus Mittag-Leffler, a Mathématicien which had stolen to him the heart of its mistress Sophie Hess.

External bonds

  • (Obvious Letters No 78,317, dated May American 26,1868-Patent)
  • Orlando de Rudder: Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Paris, Denoël 1997
  • the Nobel factory in Paulilles close to Banyuls

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