alfred bernhard nobel

Swedish chemist, inventor and industrialist, founder of the Nobel Prize. Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 21st, 1833. From 1841 to 1842, he studied at St. Jacoby's Church School in Stockholm. From 1843 to 185, he studied with Russian and Swiss tutors in Petersburg, the Russian capital. From 185 to 1852, Nobel traveled extensively in Europe and America, studied extensively, increased his knowledge and broadened his horizons. At the age of 16, he was proficient in English, German, French, Swiss, Swedish and Russian, which laid a solid foundation for his future inventions.

Nobel's father, Emmanuel Nobel, is an inventor and owns a large machinery factory in Russia. From 184 to 1859, his father was engaged in large-scale mine production in St. Petersburg. These mines and other weapons were used in the Crimean War. He invented the boiler system for household heating, designed a machine for making wooden wheels, designed and manufactured a large forging hammer, and reformed the factory equipment. In 1853, Tsar Nicholas I made an exception and awarded Emmanuel Nobel a medal in recognition of his achievements. Under the influence and guidance of his father's never-ending creative spirit, Nobel embarked on a brilliant road of scientific invention.

after growing up and studying in St. Petersburg, Nobel went to France and the United States for further study. He returned to Sweden to engage in the research and invention of chemistry, especially explosives. Nobel and his son set up a laboratory in the suburbs of Stockholm, and developed a mercury tube to solve the detonation of explosives for the first time. In 1863, he began to produce glycerol explosives. Because liquid explosives are prone to explosion accidents, in 1866, he produced a solid safe and violent explosive "Danamat", which became the cornerstone of Nobel International Industrial Group in the future. In 1867, a safety detonator was invented, and then a variety of more powerful explosives were invented. In his life, he has nearly 4 inventions such as explosives and rayon, and won 85 patents. These inventions made Nobel occupy an important position in the history of world chemistry. Nobel accumulated a lot of wealth by manufacturing explosives. He bought most of the shares of Sweden's B. Gorsbon Arms Chemical Factory, founded the Nobel Chemical Company, opened two trusts for the production of explosives in western European countries, and owned the Nobel Brothers Company for oil exploration in Baku, Russia.

Before his death, he made a will in 1895, and used most of his property of $9.2 million as a fund. With his annual interest ($2, per year), he set up five kinds of prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace (in 1969, the Swedish National Foundation added an economics prize) to reward scholars who made the greatest contribution in the above fields that year. Since 191, prizes have been awarded on December 1th, the day of Nobel's death.

alfred nobel doesn't want to write a biography. He thinks that no one will read those articles about a person.

Nobel's personal evaluation is-"The greatest advantage: keeping his nails clean is never a burden to anyone. The biggest feature: no family, lack of cheerful spirit and good appetite. The biggest and only request: don't be buried alive. The greatest sin: not worshiping the god of wealth. Important events in life: none. "

all his life, under the threat of death, Nobel sought power from nature for human beings. When describing his scientific and technological achievements in his life, he only used a few short sentences: "The author of this article was born on October 21st, 1833. He learned from a tutor and never went to a higher school. He devoted himself to the research of applied chemistry, and invented explosives in his life, such as high explosive, smokeless powder,' Balisti' or C89. In 1884, he joined the Royal Swedish Science Society, the Royal Society in London and the Society of Civil Engineers in Paris. In 188, he won the Science Medal initiated by the King of Sweden and the Grand Medal of France. "

Alfred Berhard Nobel was born on October 21st, 1833. According to the Swedish naming convention, Alfred is the first name and Nobel is the surname. However, according to the established name, the family name of the Nobel family is usually used to refer to Alfred himself.

When Nobel was born, his family went bankrupt because of a big fire. His father was worried that he would not live long, because he didn't even seem to have the strength to breathe and nurse, and he had been living in the shadow of illness since his childhood.

School life in alfred nobel is limited to primary schools. When he reached school age, he was sent to St. Jacob's Senior Guardian Primary School in Stockholm for several semesters. In this primary school, he got the highest score in all his lessons and morality, which is one of the three students who got the highest score among 82 students.

In 1842, Nobel went to live in Petersburg, Russia with his family, and his father set up a Nobel family school for his three brothers at home. In the following six or seven years, Nobel, who loves poetry, has been living a "Shelley dream", but his father is disgusted, thinking that poetry is just a pastime for lazy women, and a promising man should not and disdain to be happy with it. In the homeschool, the tutor Qi Ning, the most famous chemist in Russia at that time, had the greatest influence on Nobel science education.

In 185, when Nobel was 17 years old, his father decided to send Nobel to European countries and the United States to see the world for the development of his family business, and at the same time, he inspected the present situation and progress of machinery and chemical industry in European countries and the United States. It was not until he was 21 that he returned to Petersburg. During this period, he began to contact the manufacturing technology of nitroglycerin explosives. In 1863, Nobel returned to Sweden to develop explosives together with his father and younger brother. The factory was blown up by an accidental explosion, killing his younger brother, and the government banned them from further experiments. Therefore, he once set up his laboratory on a barge in Lake Mara outside Stockholm.

one day in the autumn of 1866, the explosion test of mercury fulminate was successful, which is the detonator widely used today. Since then, Nobel's series of inventions in explosives have made him "the father of modern explosives".

Nobel was forced to move to San Remo, Italy in 1891 because of the rejection of the French government. At that time, he was 58 years old. During the six years since he died here in 1896, he has been devoted to various new inventions in San Remo, involving chemical industry, machinery, electricity, medical care and other fields.

How many inventions and patents did Nobel complete in his life? According to the incomplete statistics made by Sohlman, Nobel's assistant, Nobel obtained 351 patents in his life.

On November 28th, 1896, Nobel fell into his study. When the servant saw this, he immediately carried him to the bedroom on the second floor. When the invited doctor arrived, Nobel's brain was already partially necrotic. He is completely unable to speak in French and Italian, which he is familiar with, except that he can mumble some words in his native Swedish. The assistants, doctors and servants present were all French and Italians, and no one could understand his last words except the word telegram. At 2 am on December 1th of the same year, Nobel died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63.

When Nobel died, none of his relatives and friends were with him. Even his favorite assistant, Sohlman, was far away in Sweden. Just as he feared before his death: "When I was dying, maybe no relatives and friends were by my side, kindly closed my eyelids and said a word of comfort in my ear."

A generation of science and technology superstars fell in the starry sky at the end of the century.

Bell's Will

In the last few years of his life, Nobel made three wills with very similar contents. The first one was established in 1889, the second one in 1893, the third one in 1895, and finally it was deposited in a bank in Stockholm, which is the last will subject to it.

This will cancelled the part that was distributed to relatives and friends, and used all my property to set up an award fund, which was made public in Sweden at the beginning of 1897:

The signer alfred nobel, after mature consideration, announced the final will on the property that may be left behind me as follows:

All the property that I left behind that can be converted into cash will be disposed of in the following ways: This capital will be invested in safe securities by my executors. Its interest will be distributed to those who have given the greatest benefit to mankind in the previous year in the form of bonuses every year. The above interest will be divided into five parts equally, and the distribution method is as follows: one part will be given to the person who made the most important discovery or invention in physics; One for those who have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; One for those who have made the most important discoveries in the fields of physiology and medicine; One for those who have created the most outstanding works with idealistic tendencies in literature; One is for those who have done their best to promote friendship between countries, abolish or reduce the standing army and hold a peace conference. Physics and chemistry prizes will be awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Physiology and medicine prizes are awarded by Caroline Medical College in Stockholm; The literary prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy of Literature in Stockholm; The Peace Prize is awarded by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. My clear wish is that when awarding these bonuses, regardless of the nationality of the award candidate, no matter whether he is Scandinavian or not, as long as he is worthy, he should be awarded a bonus.

I hereby declare that it is my urgent wish to award the bonus in this way.

this is my only valid will. After my death, if I find any previous wills about property disposal, they will be void.

Alfred Berhard Nobel

On November 27th, 1895

His will was condemned

At the beginning of the publication of Nobel's will, the voice of criticism and condemnation from Swedish public opinion prevailed. The press openly encourages relatives to appeal, and the main reasons against it are "legal defects" and "unpatriotic". According to the press, it is unpatriotic for a Swede not to pay attention to Sweden's interests, neither to donate this huge legacy to Sweden, nor to give the Swedes or even Scandinavians the priority of winning prizes, but also to ask Sweden to undertake these extra jobs, thus causing the Swedes trouble of not giving them any benefits, and it will be impossible for Swedish prize-awarding institutions to satisfactorily complete the tasks assigned to them. The will also entrusted the task of awarding the peace prize to a committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. At that time, the relationship between Sweden and Norway was already very tense, which would seriously harm Sweden's interests. Some social Democrats accused Nobel of setting up bonuses to support individual outstanding figures, which did not help social progress. They believe that Nobel's property comes from labor and nature and should benefit every member of society.

Criticism of legal defects was once thought to invalidate the whole will. The first fault picked out by clever lawyers is that the will does not clearly state which country the testator is a citizen. In this way, it is difficult to determine which country's law enforcement agency should judge the legality of the will, let alone which government should organize the Nobel Fund Committee. This accusation is not unreasonable, because Nobel was born in Sweden and grew up in Russia, and his entrepreneurial activities spread all over Europe, and he did not become a citizen of any European country in his later years. The second problem they picked out was that the will did not clearly indicate who would be responsible for the custody of all the property. They said that although the will said that a foundation would be set up, it did not specify who would organize the foundation. Therefore, it can be considered that the executor has no right to inherit the estate, and the foundation for inheriting the estate does not exist.

The most frustrating thing is that in his will, Nobel entrusted the Swedish Academy of Sciences to evaluate physics and chemistry prizes, while Hans Faucheur, the president of the Academy, advocated donating Nobel's property to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Faucheur refused to attend the meeting to study the detailed rules of the award.

The executor Sohlman and others made unremitting efforts. On May 21, 1898, the King of Sweden declared the Nobel will effective. On June 29th, 19, the Swedish Parliament adopted the articles of association of the Nobel Foundation. On December 1th, 191, the fifth anniversary of Nobel's death, the first Nobel Prize was awarded.