Alfred Nobel

Chemist, Inventor, Awesome Administrator, Social Reformer.

"It could and should soon come to pass that all states pledge themselves collectively to attack an aggressor. That would make war impossible, and would force even the most brutal and unreasonable Power to appeal to a court of arbitration, or else keep quiet."

Alfred Nobel, relatives, professional colleagues,friends, clergy and others.

Alfred Nobel was born in this house in Stockholm, Sweden on 21 Oct 1833. Source: nobelprize.org.

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 21 Oct 1833. That year his father Emmanuel Nobel went bankrupt. When Alfred was 4 yrs of age his father moved to Finland and then to St. Petersburg, Russia, leaving his family in Stockholm. Emmanuel Nobel founded a mechanical workshop in Russia.

The Nobel brothers (clockwise) Robert, Alfred 9 yrs of age, Ludvig and baby Emil. St. Petersburg, around 1843. Source: nobelprize.org.

When Alfred was 9 years old the family reunited with his father in St. Petersburg.

Alfred Nobel 16 yrs of age. 1850 Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Alfred (left), a teenager and the younger brother of his two elder brothers, Ludvig, photographed in St. Petersburg, probably around the end of the 1840's

Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Sinin [Nikolai N. Zinin] Organic Chemist and University Professor, 1812-1880, Alfred Nobel's teacher.

While in St. Petersburg, Alfred and his siblings were all educated not in a formal school, but by university professors in the natural sciences by Yuli Trapp and Nicolai Zinin. These two chemists taught them Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. They were instructed in the humanities. They learned Swedish, Russian, French, English and German. Later Alfred learned Italian.

T. Jules Pelouze, 1806-1867, French chemist. Alfred Nobel worked for a year in his lab in Paris. He was also the teacher of Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Sinin [Nikolai N. Zinin], Alfred's private tutor. Image: Wikipedia.

From 1850 to 1852 between the ages of 17 and 19 yrs Alfred lived in Paris and worked for a year in the teaching laboratory of T. Jules Pelouze, a French chemist. During this time he also travelled to Italy, Germany and the United States (USA).

The Crimean War raged from 1853 to 1856 when Alfred was 20 to 23 years of age. His father's Nobel Company produced war munition. Initially it flourished. The war coming to an end lead to the Russian military cancelling orders and his father again going bankrupt.

Ascanio Sobrero, 1812-1888, discoverer of Nitroglycerine. Italian chemist and assistant to Alfred Nobel's training teacher Professor J. T. Pelouze in Paris.

Alfred Nobel desperately looked for new products. His chemistry teacher Nikolai N. Zinin reminded him of nitroglycerin. In 1852 at the age of 29 yrs, Alfred commenced experimenting with nitroglycerin.

Nitroglycerin (blasting oil) as an industrial explosive. Source: Wikipedia

A year later, at age 30 yrs. Alfred obtained his first patent on nitroglycerin (blasting oil) as an industrial explosive. Eventually he developed dynamite.

Reference: Tore Frangsmyr

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