A shed used by Swedish inventor and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel for preparing nitroglycerin exploded in 1864 at the family’s factory in Helenborg. Five people were killed, including Nobel’s younger brother Emil.
“For nearly a millennium gunpowder reigned as the world’s premium explosive…” wrote Juan Arreseigor in National Geographic, “But after the industrial revolution… activities such as mining necessitated far more explosive power. In 1847 a breakthrough came with the development of nitroglycerin, an extraordinarily strong–and terribly dangerous–compound… The challenge for inventors was to marry the power of nitroglycerine to the stability of gunpowder.”
Nobel’s family owned Bofors, a manufacturer of cannons and other armaments. Arreseigor wrote: “Far from discouraging Nobel, the tragedy… strengthened his resolve to find a safer alternative. Three years later in 1867, Nobel stumbled upon the discovery… that the porous sedimentary rock known as diatomaceous earth has the property of absorbing nitroglycerin.” This discovery enabled Nobel to invent dynamite, which was much more stable than nitroglycerine. Dynamite became widely used in mining and infrastructure construction, generating a fortune for Nobel.
According to legend, in 1888 a newspaper mistakenly thought Nobel had died and ran a headline: “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” Nobel was deeply troubled by the idea that he was viewed as a weapons manufacturer rather than as the inventor of products enabling great advances in mining and construction. “Contentment is the only real wealth,” he said. And he decided to achieve contentment through leaving a more positive legacy.
Never having married, and with no children, in 1895 Nobel set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, which annually recognize those who “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in five areas: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. The Nobel Prizes have become arguably the highest honor an individual can receive. Which is fitting as Nobel himself also ‘conferred great benefit’ to future generations with not just one, but with his two legacies–dynamite and the Nobel Prizes.
