Although Alfred Nobel officially settled in San Remo in 1891, this does not mean that during his later years from 1891 to 1896 , he has rested on his laurels, or is simply passing the time in his sunny Mediterranean retreat. This is not his character. It can be seen from the many letters he sent there that the endless travel required by his work could not calm him down even now. He visited several European capitals and many places where his factories and companies were located. Paris accounted for half of his visits and was where he stayed the longest. Despite persecution by the French government and press, he still had many connections with the capital. He avoided getting involved in political and business disputes as much as possible, but if he did get involved in these disputes, he was fearless and was quick to fight them with his mouth and pen. If he thought something was going wrong that threatened to interfere with his research, he had a knack for evading it. He used old roll-up notebooks and letterheads, a fountain pen he designed himself, which must have been a unique new gadget at the time, and a special suitcase, all of which accompanied him on his travels. And it shows that he has to work hard even in trains, ships and hotel rooms.

The interlude of political propaganda played by the French government and the dynamite control authorities in the mid-1890s over a far-from-smokeless explosive has quieted down. The days of the Barb and Panama scandals are over, as is the vexing string of smokeless explosives lawsuits. The inventor's vast business affairs were developing favorably and bringing in large incomes. New general managers and independent companies and cartels have taken much of the heavy lifting off his shoulders, especially now that he has resigned from all board positions. This 60-year-old man with Sanremo as his base camp has been exhausted by the experiences in his life. However, even though he felt tired, he still felt that there was still a lot of things waiting for him to accomplish. Those interesting problems that urgently need to be solved give him the strength to persist in his work. He once said at this time: "I work intermittently. Sometimes I feel lonely, and then I work again. I often work like that, but for those things that I feel will be successful in the end. I will always seize Don’t let go.” This is typical Nobel.

The inventor's trusted figure, Georges Fehrenbach, was seen as a theoretically proficient chemist during the prolific Parisian years and was unwilling to leave his hometown. Therefore, Nobel allowed him to receive his pension and leave; he also hired the British Hugh Beckett as the new chief chemist of the laboratory; his laboratory, built in the large garden of the Villa Sanremo, is Equipped with the latest German equipment.

In 1893, he also hired the twenty-three-year-old Swedish explosives chemist Ragnar Solman (1870-1948), who had just returned from a technical job in the United States. of. Practice has proved that this is a very important step. Solman, a genius, humble and honest man, not only became, as Nobel himself said: "one of my few favorites" but also became the main executor of his will. He was one of those who deserved the credit for carrying out this extraordinary testament which benefited the world. With tireless efforts, often in spectacular circumstances, he overcame the many difficulties encountered in establishing the Nobel Foundation and in receiving the funds for the award contained in this will. with obstacles. He also devoted his life to Nobel's many aspects of his legacy.

Nobel built a small pier stretching into the sea in Sanremo to conduct explosives and firearms experiments; he worked there for five years in a highly intense manner. The basic work of several important inventions that Nobel did not complete during his lifetime was done there; later, these inventions were successfully tested by others and played a role in promoting some major events.

Nobel's final discovery in the field of explosives, the so-called "improved smokeless explosive" (the first invention patent registered in Sweden is No. 7552 of 1896), is a hybrid smokeless explosive further developed to suit certain special purposes. Smoke explosives were created in this laboratory. If we want to thoroughly explain this invention, we need to involve the technical details of cannons and internal ballistics; so here we can only simply say that its purpose is to "increase the muzzle velocity of the projectile without increasing the maximum pressure inside the weapon." ; This is done by inducing a certain increased incremental force in the burning of the explosive, so that as the projectile advances within the gun chamber, the pressure is maintained and the overall ballistic action increases the consumption of explosive for this advance. From two aspects: mechanically, through the progressive increase of the surface layer of the explosive pellet during the combustion process; and chemically, through the individual explosive pellets, which are made into various layers. The various layers allow the inner layer to have a greater burning rate, thereby increasing the effect during the combustion process."

The manufacture and testing of improved explosives began in several factories of Nobel. It was carried out between 1895 and 1896 in the inventor's new Swedish laboratory in Bjerkborn, near Bofors. Nobel's interests as an inventor were by no means limited to dynamite. He had a high degree of imagination, which is an indispensable quality for those true inventive geniuses. Not only was he capable, but he was also eager to apply his brilliant ideas to the things around him. This includes a wide variety of subject and applied chemistry - electrochemistry, optics, mechanics and artillery, biology and physiology. These mentioned are only subjects in the fields of technology and natural sciences. Like his father Emmanuel, his creativity sometimes went as far as the whimsical. This is usually done in a split second, on purpose. According to his aides, he sometimes couldn't draw the line between fanciful ideas and epoch-making inventions. It is, of course, more difficult for him to draw this line when his knowledge of a subject is shallower, such as the construction methods of certain cannons, or certain biological and physiological problems. As the years went by, Alfred Nobel turned many of these diverse ideas into patented inventions. The total number of invention patent rights he applied for and obtained cannot be stated accurately; but the registration form with a similar number produced when liquidating his property included no less than 351 patents he had obtained in various countries. Invention patent rights, this is an amazing number coming from a mind.

From the late 1880s, and as a direct result of research into mixed smokeless explosives, Nobel's own interest in firearms technology grew. According to what he repeatedly told Solman and others, this particular aspect attracted his interest, primarily as a spiritual matter. At the same time, because of his strong natural aversion to war and violence, he became, paradoxically enough, an increasingly vehement opponent of the practical use of these inventions. He once wrote at this time: "For my part, I wish that all guns, their accessories and everything else, could be sent to hell, where they would be the proper place to exhibit and use them. "Nonetheless, during his later years, his theoretical and experimental work still made many improvements in this area, such as fuses containing nitroglycerin, silent firing of guns, quenching and welding of metals, stabilization and rotation of projectiles. and cooling, their gas containment and safety, and a rocket for marine rescue, among many other inventions.

He had an unforgettable and painstaking idea inherited from his father in his early years, which was to try to use raw materials closely related to the manufacture of explosives to make rubber, Eucommia gum and Leather substitutes. He also developed various paints based on nitrocellulose dissolved in various semi-volatile solutions. During the experimental phase of these inventions, in the laboratories of Sanremo and later in Bjerkborn, Sweden, many new solvents for nitrocellulose were discovered.

They are important not only for mixing with explosives, requiring reduced combustion temperatures and corrosive effects, but also as ingredients in the paints of our modern nitrocellulose models; paints now sold by, for example, the Imperial Chemical Company and I. G·Chemical Company is famous throughout the world for its many products. In fact, the early paths that led to their production were almost certainly pointed out by Nobel's patented inventions.

Although Nobel's interest in early synthetic rubber manufacturing did not make much progress during his lifetime, it undoubtedly played a role in promoting the subsequent production of artificial rubber and artificial leather. Another use of nitrocellulose that interested Nobel in its early stages was the manufacture of rayon. Between 1893 and 1894, he conducted experiments in this area in his laboratory in San Remo, together with the Swedish engineer Strelnath. The glass pressure nozzle with extremely fine holes he invented was patented in 1896. This nozzle is a necessary tool to squeeze out the nitrocellulose or celluloid solution and then harden it into filamentous fibers. Its production method is to use very thin platinum wires to penetrate into the glass of the solution. After cooling, the platinum wires are corroded away with aqua regia①. This idea was developed by many subsequent successors. Rayon or silk, known and valued under many trademarks for decades, has now become a product that sells around the world in countless forms and under new names.

Since the beginning of this century, rayon goods have been produced in a number of large factories in Germany, England, Italy and France. Nobel was the first company to form a cartel with them, and Nobel had provided design and financial support to some of his companies.

① A mixture of one part concentrated nitric acid and three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid is extremely corrosive and can dissolve gold and certain metals that cannot be dissolved in ordinary acids. ——Editor's note Alfred·

Nobel also engaged in experiments to improve parts of records, telephones, batteries, and incandescent lamps, and tried to produce semi-precious or full-precious stones (corundum, corundum, etc.) by fused alumina. Ruby, sapphire, etc.). All this exploratory work helped inventors who later had better equipment solve many problems. Alfred Nobel supported many inventors and industrialists. Here, only a few things can be mentioned. We already know that in the 1880s, when his brother Ludwig was in dire straits in the Russian oil industry, he provided effective assistance; this help was not only financial but also important to the industry. For technical improvements, plans have been developed several times. The original proposal to lay an oil pipeline from the oil production area to the shipping port was made by him; several innovations in crude oil refining and distillation, as well as technologies such as the use of paraffin lighting, were also based on the successful trials of his patented inventions.

In 1882, he proposed to his brother that "explosive engines should be used instead of steam engines on some ships", seeming to foresee that the products of the Nobel Brothers Oil Company could be used as another type of fuel. use. In 1895, together with the Swedish engineer Rudolf Lilekvist, he established an electrochemical company in Bunzfoss. It was the first Swedish factory to produce electroplating products and chemicals for industrial and pharmaceutical use, and later developed into a large enterprise with several factories in Bohus. Nobel had great trust in Lilekvist's character, and when drafting his will, he named Lilekvist as one of his executors. Two young Swedish engineers wanted to write industrial history with their inventions, and they received their first financial support from Nobel. The two engineers were Berger Ljanstr?m (1872-1948) and his brother Friedrich (born in 1875).

Nobel wrote about them: "It is a pleasure to work with a man of considerable ability and genuine humility like Mr. Liangstr?m." Funded Of the designs, mention can be made of the Siwei bicycle with a speeder shaft, and a high-horsepower steam boiler.

Many of Ljanstr?m's inventions, such as air preheaters, steam and gas turbines, turbine locomotives, etc., were later successfully supplied to the world through his Svenska Turbine Factory and other companies. In 1890, he brought Johansson, then a promising young scientist who later became a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, to spend six months conducting research in the Saffran laboratory in Paris. The blood transfusion test was a new technology that Nobel was very interested in at the time. He explained in a letter to Johansson that he was considering setting up an institute for medical experiments of his own, and wrote with his usual foresight: "If this is possible, many unexpected results will be achieved." Nobel and Johansson's cooperation prompted him to donate 50,000 crowns from the money left by his mother to the Karolinska Institute in the same year to establish the "Caroline Andrete Nobel Fund." For the purpose of experimental medical research in various disciplines, publication of the above-mentioned research results, and guidance of such research." His opinions were taken into account when the Nobel Foundation was established and its rules were drafted, as well as when the Nobel Medical School was established. It would be strange to say that the versatile Nobel was not interested in airplanes. In 1986, he provided funding for Swedish balloonist Andre's plan to reach the North Pole by steamer.

Nobel’s reasons for providing substantial funding to this project are noteworthy. He wrote: "If Andre reaches his destination, or if he only flies halfway, the feat itself will be a matter of imagination and will generate new ideas and reforms. In this regard , I also want to serve the idea of ??peace, because every new discovery always leaves a trace in the human mind, making it possible to be passed on from generation to generation, so that it can arouse new cultural ideas in more minds .” But that’s not all. Nobel was characteristically always ahead of his time, and Alfred's correspondence in the early 1890s shows that he was also interested in surveying and mapping through aerial photography. Since there were no aircraft carrying cameras into the sky at that time, Nobel suggested using balloons or missiles for this purpose.

When we read a letter written by Solman four months before his death, we seem to have a taste of contemporary cosmic exploration: "...I intend to bring a A small balloon with a parachute, a camera and a small clock or timing lead is sent up to the sky. At the appropriate height, the balloon will automatically deflate or separate from the parachute. Then, the camera will take pictures as the parachute gradually descends. ” He also clearly foresaw that air traffic in the future would be developed not by balloons or dirigibles, but by fast propeller-propelled aircraft. In 1892, ten years before the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, he wrote: "Flying really excites me, but... We must not think that this problem can be solved by means of balloons. When a bird flies at high speed, it can overcome gravity by gently shaking its wings. This is not something that the bird can do. Of course humans can, too. We must have a high-speed floating raft, a cardinal that can fly from Paris to San Remo in three hours..." He also wrote: "Since the invention of electricity and its attendants, as long as It takes a quarter of a second to go around the Earth. I have a disdainful attitude towards our little Earth, but a great interest in a much smaller entity, the atom, which is alone. situation, or as an integral part of the living cells of the universe, its form, movement, and determination occupy more of my thoughts than they deserve."

Alfried. Ragnar Solman, Nobel's assistant and friend, later commented on his achievements as an inventor outside of the science of explosives: "When one peruses Alfred Nobel's catalog of patented inventions, those who harbored Severely biased people will no doubt find good reasons to doubt Nobel's technical judgment.

In the eyes of serious technicians and industrialists, many of his ideas were just whims and whims. But don't forget that many of the ideas considered so by modern technicians were actually realized by Nobel and became the most important things. People should not forget that some of his other ideas have been applied in other directions or fields that are different from what he originally intended. In terms of his rich ideas, this genius inventor is not stingy at all, just like nature in cultivating new seeds of life. As a rule, only a few of the seeds immediately get the right soil to germinate and grow. Some are shriveled; others may have landed in fertile places, but time has not been kind to them, yet these seeds of thought can retain their vitality for decades, sometimes even centuries. When changed conditions arise, they will begin to sprout like seeds blown by the wind into fertile soil.

“Furthermore, historically, the development of technology has been conditioned by all the efforts, all the thought that different inventors have put into solving problems, regardless of the circumstances in each particular case. Whether such work can yield immediate results is why the history of technology and invention is currently of greater interest, and like all history it opens up a broad view of the process of progress, thereby providing valuable information for the present and the future. "Nobel once wrote: "If I have a thousand ideas in a year, and only one of them turns out to be good, then I will be satisfied."