Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist and inventor who invented dynamite in 1867 and used his family’s wealth to establish the Nobel prizes. Nobel accidentally discovered that nitroglycerine would retain its explosive properties when absorbed by diatomaceous earth. Nobel called the substance "dynamite." To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap), which could be ignited by lighting a fuse. These inventions were made at the same time as the diamond drilling crown and the pneumatic drill came into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction work. Nobel believed his invention would have peaceful uses and would deter war by making it too horrible. Nobel became wealthy, but dynamite became one of the primary means of war. On November 27, 1895, Nobel signed his last will providing for the establishment of the Nobel Prize. The annual prizes are given in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace (a sixth for Economics, which is financed by the Swedish National Bank, was first awarded in 1969).

The growing understanding of gases and the reactions that produce them was of great importance to modern industrial society during Nobel’s lifetime. Not least was the production of explosives—substances that undergo reactions involving the release of heat and rapidly expanding gaseous products. In making black powder, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and E. I. du Pont were improving a technology known to Western cultures since the 14th century and even earlier in China and the Far East. In the 19th century, much more powerful explosives were created by treating various organic substances with nitric acid. Among these new explosives was Nobel’s dynamite, one thousand times more powerful than black powder.

Nobel's father, Immanuel, was a Swedish inventor-entrepreneur in St. Petersburg, who supplied the Russian military with war matériel, including early underwater mines. Alfred and his brothers were educated at home by Swedish and Russian tutors in chemistry and other subjects. Alfred became very proficient in chemistry but also entertained ambitions of becoming a writer. Partly to dissuade him from the latter, his father financed his 16-year-old son's travel and study in Europe, including a stay of some months in the Paris laboratory of Théophile Pelouze, where Nobel shared workspace with an Italian chemist, Ascanio Sobrero, who had first prepared nitroglycerin in 1846. When Alfred was 17, he apprenticed in New York with the Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson, who later built the Monitor, the Union's ironclad warship that became famous for defeating the Confederacy's Merrimac. When Alfred returned to St. Petersburg, the Nobel factory was booming thanks to the Crimean War. When the war ended and the firm went into bankruptcy, Alfred and his father turned to developing methods to produce nitroglycerin in quantity. In 1862 Alfred began its manufacture in a small plant outside Stockholm—a venture that cost the life of his youngest brother, Emil. Alfred persevered, first inventing the blasting cap and then discovering that a silicaceous earth, kieselguhr, would stabilize nitroglycerin, thus making dynamite.

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

Sources

• Chemical Heritage Foundation (Content Partner); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2007. "Nobel, Alfred Bernhard." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 14, 2006; Last revised March 20, 2007; Retrieved September 14, 2009]. 
• Wikipedia Contributors, Alfred Nobel, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 14 September 2009.