Alfred Nobel’s extraordinary life

The Nobel Prize may be one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world, but who was behind it?As I explain in my lecture on Alfred Nobel, the inventor and entrepreneur He left a lasting legacy by creating the Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace in 1901 (the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was established much later). 1968).

However, Alfred Nobel’s life was not always bright.

According to Ingrid Karlberg’s biography of Nobel, he had a difficult childhood in Stockholm. Not only was he poor, but this boy, who would go on to become a respected scientist with 355 patents in his lifetime, was placed in a class for children with learning disabilities at school. But innovation may have Nobel Prizes in its blood. Alfred’s father, Immanuel, was also an inventor, but was not as successful as his son.

Among Immanuel’s early works is a backpack made of foul-smelling rubber that doubles as a flotation device for soldiers needing to cross a river and as a pillow to sit comfortably on. I did. However, Immanuel’s inventions caused him to run into huge debts, and he fled from his creditors to St. Petersburg, Russia. This place would play an important role in the later life of his son Alfred.

Alfred’s situation improved when the Nobel family moved to Russia and began working on explosives there.

explosive interest

Unfortunately, Immanuel once again faced bankruptcy in Russia and returned to Sweden. Alfred and his father, together with the Nobel family’s youngest son Emil, conducted experiments with nitroglycerin in Stockholm.

The results of these experiments made significant contributions to industrialization and medicine. However, many tragic events took place before Alfred invented dynamite in 1867 and discovered a safer way to use nitroglycerine.

For example, in 1864 Alfred’s younger brother Emil died in a nitroglycerin explosion at the family laboratory near Stockholm. Subsequently, the production of nitroglycerin was banned in Stockholm.

However, this family tragedy did not distract Alfred from his goals. He continued to manufacture explosives at a factory in Winterviken, Sweden, now on an industrial scale. The factory was repeatedly destroyed by accidents caused by the instability of nitroglycerin, killing many workers.

Nobel’s factory was undoubtedly a dangerous place to work, but it also helped uncover the benefits of nitroglycerin as a heart drug.

Factory workers experienced health changes due to exposure to nitroglycerin. This chemical has substantial physiological effects as a vasodilator, relaxing blood vessels and increasing blood flow and oxygen to the heart.

1998 The 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Robert F. Furchgott, Luis J. Ignarro, and Ferid Murad “for their discoveries regarding nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.” jointly awarded to the This may have surprised Alfred Nobel, who reportedly refused to take nitroglycerin when his doctor prescribed it for an angina attack.

Nobel’s work was followed by the Chemistry Prize and the Physics Prize, but even more surprising, given Nobel’s significant contribution to the development of weapons of war, was the Peace Prize.

One of Nobel’s closest friends was Bertha von Suttner, a pacifist who wrote the best-selling anti-war novel “Put Down Your Arms.” It is believed that she wanted Alfred Nobel to donate to the peace movement, but Alfred chose to fund the prize instead. In 1905, von Suttner became the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second woman to win the Nobel Prize after Marie Curie.

courtship controversy

Some aspects of the prize were highly controversial.

It was considered foolish that a woman could win the Nobel Peace Prize, let alone that it be awarded by a Norwegian committee. But for Alfred, Oslo must have been considered a natural place to claim one of the prizes. At the time of Alfred’s death, Sweden and Norway were allied, so Alfred spent much of his time spending time with friends at the Swedish-Norwegian Society in Paris.

Swedes were upset that the award was not restricted to Swedish citizens and could be awarded to anyone. In the 19th century, most awards were national, but Alfred must have been an internationalist. He spent his childhood in Sweden, his formative years in Russia, and most of his later life in France, where he had a villa in Sanremo, Italy. Sanremo authorities continue to send flowers to decorate the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm every year.

However, the fiercest attacks on the Nobel Prize came not from Swedish nationalists, but from Nobel’s own family, who were stripped of their inheritance after Alfred’s death. As families realized they had multiple wills, they received less money for each will, leaving the final version with the most prize money.

The importance of Ragnar Solman, Alfred Nobel’s assistant and executor who lobbied hard for the prize, cannot be overestimated.

In the end, the case ended up in the French and Swedish courts. At this time, the Swedes may have proposed that the will be settled in a small court in Karlskoga, a small city in central Sweden, where Alfred made his home at the end of his life. do not have. Importantly, Alfred owned horses.

In the end, it was decided that the place where a man kept his horse was also the place where he belonged, and the small court in Karlskoga, Sweden, was chosen to interpret Alfred Nobel’s will, and the Nobel Prize was born. I did.

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