Born in
Stockholm, Alfred Nobel was the fourth son of
Immanuel Nobel (1801–1872), an inventor and engineer, and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel (1805–1889).
The couple married in 1827 and had eight children. The family was
impoverished, and only Alfred and his three brothers survived past
childhood.
Through his father, Alfred Nobel was a descendant of the Swedish scientist
Olaus Rudbeck (1630–1702),and in his turn the boy was interested in engineering, particularly
explosives, learning the basic principles from his father at a young
age.
Following various business failures, Nobel's father moved to
Saint Petersburg in 1837 and grew successful there as a manufacturer of machine tools and explosives. He invented modern
plywood and started work on the "
torpedo".
In 1842, the family joined him in the city. Now prosperous, his parents
were able to send Nobel to private tutors and the boy excelled in his
studies, particularly in chemistry and languages, achieving fluency in
English, French, German, and Russian.
For 18 months, during 1841–1842, Nobel went to the only school he ever
attended as a child, the Jacobs Apologistic School in Stockholm.
As a young man, Nobel studied with chemist
Nikolai Zinin;
then, in 1850, went to Paris to further the work; and, at 18, he went
to the United States for four years to study chemistry, collaborating
for a short period under inventor
John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad
USS Monitor. Nobel filed his first patent, for a gas meter, in 1857.
[2][5][1]
The family factory produced armaments for the
Crimean War
(1853–1856); but, had difficulty switching back to regular domestic
production when the fighting ended and they filed for bankruptcy.
In 1859, Nobel's father left his factory in the care of the second son,
Ludvig Nobel
(1831–1888), who greatly improved the business. Nobel and his parents
returned to Sweden from Russia and Nobel devoted himself to the study of
explosives, and especially to the safe manufacture and use of
nitroglycerine (discovered in 1847 by
Ascanio Sobrero, one of his fellow students under
Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the
University of Turin). Nobel invented a detonator in 1863; and, in 1865, he designed the
blasting cap.
On 3 September 1864, a shed, used for the preparation of nitroglycerin, exploded at the factory in
Heleneborg Stockholm, killing five people, including Nobel's younger brother
Emil.
Dogged by more minor accidents but unfazed, Nobel went on to build
further factories, focusing on improving the stability of the explosives
he was developing.
Nobel invented
dynamite in 1867, a substance easier and safer to handle than the more unstable
nitroglycerin.
Dynamite was patented in the US and the UK and was used extensively in
mining and the building of transport networks internationally.
In 1875 Nobel invented
gelignite, more stable and powerful than dynamite, and in 1887 patented
ballistite, a forerunner of
cordite.
Nobel was elected a member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would later select laureates for two of the Nobel prizes, and he received an
honorary doctorate from
Uppsala University in 1893.
Nobel's brothers Ludvig and Robert exploited oilfields along the
Caspian Sea
and became hugely rich in their own right. Nobel invested in these and
amassed great wealth through the development of these new oil regions.
During his life Nobel issued 350
patents internationally and by his death had established 90 armaments factories, despite his belief in pacifism.
In 1891, following the death of his mother and his brother Ludvig and
the end of a long standing relationship, Nobel moved from Paris to
San Remo, Italy. Suffering from
angina, Nobel died at home, of a
cerebral haemorrhage
in 1896. Unbeknownst to his family, friends or colleagues, he had left
most of his wealth in trust, in order to fund the awards that would
become known as the
Nobel Prizes.
He is buried in
Norra begravningsplatsen in
Stockholm.
As a young man, Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin;
then, in 1850, went to Paris to further the work; and, at 18, he went
to the United States for four years to study chemistry, collaborating
for a short period under inventor John Ericsson, who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Nobel filed his first patent, for a gas meter, in 1857.[2][5][1]
Alfred Bernhard Nobel ([äl'fred bern'härd nōbel'] 
listen (help·info)) (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He was the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors,
which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and
steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments.
Nobel held 350 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. He
used his fortune to posthumously institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him. His name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamite Nobel and Akzo Nobel, which are descendants of the companies Nobel himself established.