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NOBEL, ALFRED BERNHARD (1833-1896)
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See also:NOBEL, See also:ALFRED BERNHARD (1833-1896) , See also:Swedish chemist and engineer, was the third son of See also:Emmanuel Nobel (1801-1872), and was See also:born at See also:Stockholm on the 21st of See also:October 1833. At an See also:early See also:age he went with his See also:family to St See also:Petersburg, where his See also:father started See also:torpedo See also:works. In 1859 these were See also:left to the care of the second son, Ludvig Emmanuel (1831-1888), by whom they were greatly enlarged, and Alfred, returning to See also:Sweden with his father, devoted himself to the study of ex-See also:plosives, and especially to the manufacture and utilization of See also:nitroglycerin. He found that when that See also:body was incorporated with an absorbent, inert substance like kieselguhr it became safer and more convenient to manipulate, and this mixture he patented in 1867 as See also:dynamite. He next combined nitro-See also:glycerin with another high explosive, See also:gun-See also:cotton, and obtained a transparent, jelly-like substance, which was a still more powerful explosive than dynamite. See also:Blasting See also:gelatin, as it was called, was patented in 1876, and was followed by a See also:host of similar combinations, modified by the addition of See also:potassium nitrate, See also:wood-pulp and various other substances. Some thirteen years later Nobel produced ballistite, one of the earliest of the nitroglycerin smokeless powders, containing in its latest forms about equal parts of gun-cotton and nitroglycerin. This See also:powder was a precursor of See also:cordite, and Nobel's claim that his patent covered the latter was the occasion of vigorously contested See also:law-suits between him and the See also:British See also:Government in 1894 and 1895. Cordite also consists of nitroglycerin and gun-cotton, but the See also:form of the latter which its inventors wished-to use was the most highly nitrated variety, which is not soluble in mixtures of See also:ether and See also:alcohol, whereas Nobel contemplated using a less nitrated form, which is soluble in such mixtures. The question was complicated by the fact that it is in practice impossible to prepare either of these two forms without ad-mixture of the other; but eventually the courts decided against Nobel. From the manufacture of dynamite and other See also:explosives, and from the exploitation of the See also:Baku oil-See also:fields, in the development of which he and his See also:brothers, Ludvig and See also:Robert Hjalmar (1829-1896), took a leading See also:part, he amassed an immense See also:fortune; and at his See also:death, which occurred on the loth of See also:December 1896 at See also:San Remo, he left the bulk of it in See also:trust for the See also:establishment of five prizes, each See also:worth several thousand pounds, to be awarded annually without distinction of See also:nationality. The first three of these prizes are for See also:eminence in See also:physical See also:science, in See also:chemistry and in medical science or See also:physiology; the See also:fourth is for the most remarkable See also:literary See also:work clans le See also:sens d'idkalisme; and the fifth is to be given to the See also:person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of See also:international brotherhood, in the suppression or reduction of See also:standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of See also:peace congresses. See See also:Les Prix Nobel en agar (Stockholm, 1904). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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