Nobel acquired a vast fortune from this invention, which spawned an intricate network of factories, sales representatives, and distributors in several industrialized countries around the world. Virtually overnight, dynamite revolutionized the mining industry, for it wasfive times as powerful as gunpowder, relatively easy to produce, and reasonably safe to use. When saturated with nitroglycerine, this porous clay became a highly desirable explosive, whichNobel termed dynamite and patented in 1867. After exhaustive experimentation, Nobel found a nearly perfect substance, kieselguhr. The result was Nobel's first important invention, the mercury fulminate cap.Ī fatal factory accident the following year, in which Nobel's brother Emil was killed, led the inventor to continue his research with nitroglycerine, thistime in the hope of discovering a benign substance to absorb the liquid explosive, thereby making it safe for manipulation and transportation, without seriously diminishing its eruptive characteristics. In Nobel's mind, all that remained was to devise a special blasting charge to ensure a predictable detonation of the nitroglycerine by shock rather than heat, which he already knew tobe a dangerously imperfect firing method. Sharing his interest, his father during this same time designed a method for the large-scale production of the explosive. Through his own studies and experiments, begun as early as 1859, Nobel had familiarized himself with Sobrero's compound of glycerine treated with nitric acid, and had even exploded small quantities of it under water. Instead, gunpowder and guncotton dominated the explosives industry, despite their own shortcomings. After extensive travels, through which he acquired the sharp skills of a businessman andthe distinct advantages of a multilinguist, Nobel returned to Sweden in 1863for the singular purpose of safely manufacturing nitroglycerin.Īlmost two decades earlier, Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) had invented this oily liquid, but it proved so volatile as to preclude its widespread use. Like his father, a manufacturer of mines and other explosives, Nobel displayed an avid interest in engineering and chemistry andas a young man worked for a time in the laboratory of French chemist Théophile Jules Pelouze (1807-1867), who is regarded by some as the inventor of guncotton (most accord the honor to Christian Schönbein). Owner of more than 350 patented inventions during his lifetime, Nobel is bestknown as the discoverer of dynamite and the man who upon his death bequeathed much of his large estate to support the annual Nobel Prizes for accomplishments in physics, chemistry, economics, science and medicine, literature, andthe promotion of peace.īorn in Stockholm, Nobel received his education from private tutors and fromvarious apprenticeships. Nationality Swedish Gender Male Occupation inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist
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