In the year 1853, Alfred was asked to go work in the family enterprise, which was involved in delivering equipment to the Russian Army. After the Crimean War ended in 1856, the business began to fail, and the Nobels returned to Stockholm (Keene 8). Two of Alfred’s brothers, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg and had managed with some difficulties, and some help from Alfred and Emil, to salvage the family enterprise. During a trip to Baku, located on the Caspian Sea, Robert Nobel realized the potential possibilities for commercial oil wells in that area. He then persuaded Ludvig to join in marketing the oil wells, and in 1876, they started an oil company called Branobel. They made a number of commercial and technical innovations. Among these were pipelines for the transport of oil and oil tankers built in sections in Sweden and assembled on the Caspian Sea. They became a very well known figure in pre revolutionary Russia, not only for their technical inventions and business enterprise, but because they had good relations with their employees. They introduced profit sharing and worked actively to improve working conditions in their factories. They were very successful and became some of the wealthiest people of their time (His Life).
As soon as the rest of the Nobels were settled in the family estate, Alfred and his younger brother Emil began tinkering with various explosive devices in their fathers laboratory, and obtained several patents from the Swedish Government. These devices helped in Robert’s and Ludvig’s salvaging of the family enterprise (Keene 9). Once the enterprise got back on it’s feet Alfred and Emil began to discuss various conceivable projects. Professor Zinin, a former teacher, reminded them of the potential of nitroglycerine. It is said that he demonstrated the power of the explosive by pouring a few drops on an anvil and striking it with a hammer, producing a loud bang. However, it was only the liquid that had come into contact with the hammer that had exploded. The rest of the liquid was not affected. Sobrero had already realized this problem and others. Nitroglycerin was difficult to manufacture because upon reaching excessive temperatures the substance would explode. Also, once manufactured, the liquid was equally difficult to explode in a controlled manner (Frängsmyr).
During the following years, Alfred and Emil began experiments on the unstable explosive. This involved great risks and the goal of reaching an easier way to detonate and manufacture the product would not come easily to the Nobels. At first they succeeded in manufacturing sufficient quantities of nitroglycerin without any mishaps. Then Alfred then devised a more practical way of detonating nitroglycerine by using gunpowder to ignite it. In October 1863, Alfred Nobel was granted a patent for the explosive that he called blasting oil. This invention paved the road for future success (Frängsmyr).
In 1864, during experiments to perfect the detonating device, the laboratory blew up killing eight, including Alfred’s little brother Emil. When the terrible news reached Immanuel Nobel he suffered a near fatal stroke that left him bedridden for the rest of his life (Keene 9). Nobel, who convinced himself that he was on the right track toward a safe solution, approached one of Stockholm’s richest men, J. W. Smitt. Smitt agreed to participate in forming a company and together established Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget. He began production of nitroglycerin commercially (Gray 25). Before Alfred could start producing the explosive he first needed to find a suitable site for the factory. Since the explosion that left eight people dead had shown how exceedingly powerful nitroglycerin was, the authorities forbade any experimentation with the lethal explosive within the Stockholm City limits. This forced Alfred to move the factory to a barge anchored on Lake Mälaren (Frängsmyr). One year later, in 1865, the company received official permission to move the business from the old barge to a factory at Vinterviken, an isolated inlet on the same lake, located opposite the island of Stora Essingen, not far from the city. Manufacturing of the substance started under very primitive conditions that were partly outdoors and partly in simple constructed sheds.
During the spring of 1866, a series of accidents occurred during the shipment and storage of blasting oil, which generated much negative publicity. Nobel knew now that he had to find a way of blending nitroglycerin with an absorbent material so that it could be handled and transported safely. He started mixing nitroglycerin with different additives. He had tested many different materials including black powder, charcoal powder, wood flour, sawdust and cements, but all the results were unacceptable. He soon had found that mixing nitroglycerin with silica turned the liquid into a paste, enabling it to be shaped into rods of any size and form suitable for the insertion into drilled holes. Nobel then used his initial blasting cap in detonating the mixture. The blasting cap was a hollow wooden plug filled with black gunpowder. This was placed in the dynamite and was lit by a burning fuse. Alfred called this new safe explosive, dynamite, and obtained a Swedish patent for it in 1867. Nobel continued to improve these products and in 1876 he patented Blasting Gelatin, followed by Extra Dynamite. These inventions were made at the same time that the diamond-drilling crown and the pneumatic drill were coming into general use. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction work (His Life).
Nobel’s invention was very quickly put into use for major construction projects taking place around the world, including the construction of railway tunnels through the Swiss Alps, and blasting tunnels through the Sierra Nevadas for the new Central Pacific Railroad (Keene 9). Production was now set to begin on a large scale, and demand grew very rapidly. At the Vinterviken manufacturing plant Alfred had added a new nitroglycerin and dynamite factory, as well as a new sulphuric acid factory. These buildings were all inside a fenced area with a security staff and a gatehouse. The company’s idea behind adding to the pre existing factory instead of building on a new site was to not only produce the end product, but also as many of the other manufacturing components as possible. They included various kinds of acids, saltpeter and nitrocellulose. The demand for these products increased continuously, aiding in building many feats around the world (Frängsmyr).
As demand went up Alfred appointed his oldest brother Robert managing director for Vinterviken. This left Alfred to channel his now free energy into building a worldwide industrial empire (His Life).
Alfred Nobel traveled and spent much time expanding the company. From 1865-1873, he had managed to build factories in Ardeer, Scotland, South America, Australia, East Asia and the Americas. He also had got other subsidiaries in Norway, Austria, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and what is now Czechoslovakia. Alfred had even interested Japan and Belgium in factories for their countries. All of the hours Nobel traveled paid off at the end; he had founded nearly 90 different laboratories and factories in more than 20 countries. Combined they were producing 66,500 tons of explosives.
As dynamite hit America, the American people had adopted the new explosive like any other new fad or discovery trying it out on a variety of projects. It was used as a new humane killer for the meat industry, at one end of the scale, and as a rainmaking device on the other. In the late 1800’s a drought in New York was brought to an end by exploding two hundred pounds of dynamite, slung from a balloon, over the city. A similar event took place in Texas where a series of dynamite explosions at ten-minute intervals resulted in a sharp bang of thunder followed by heavy rain. There was much money involved with the arrival of dynamite and Alfred Nobel was building a fortune from it (Gray 30).
When Alfred was not out traveling on business activities Nobel worked intensively in his various laboratories. Moving from Stockholm to Hamburg, Ardeer, Scotland then Paris. From Paris he went to Sevran, France, Karlskoga, Sweden and finally to San Remo, Italy. His lab work was focused on the development of explosive technology, as well as other chemical inventions. These inventions consisted of such materials as synthetic rubber, synthetic leather and even artificial silk (His Life).
Alfred Nobel had a distinguishing quality of versatility. He was an inventor, an industrialist and an administrator. He had to safeguard his patent rights and conduct business in five languages with the rest of the world. During this time he did not have a secretary or electronic communications such as telephones or fax machines. He had traveled by train or boat since airplanes had not been invented. His company always received negative publicity due to accidents at the factories. There were also deceitful business partners unmasked. All of these problems he had to deal with himself. Alfred constantly complained in letters of being hounded by people in which he described in his own words as “pure torture”. Alfred had managed to cope with his stressful life to reach a very high level of success (Frängsmyr).
Nobel had been aware of the growing European peace movement that had begun in the 1860’s. He was always interested with this and had entertained men and women that supported this movement in his home. One of those was Bertha Von Suttner, a writer who with her husband became friends with Nobel in the mid 1880’s. With Bertha’s encouragement Nobel donated large amounts of money to various peace organizations. She also encouraged him to donate at least some of his substantial fortune to the cause of international peace. Alfred’s love to promote peace would later help him in writing his will.
In 1894, Alfred bought a second house in Varmland, Sweden. Here is where he would spend the last two summers of his life. Back in San Remo, in the fall of 1886, Nobel began to write his will. In it he made provisions not only for a peace prize, but also for annual awards to outstanding individuals in four other fields including literature, chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine. He signed the final draft of his will on November 27, 1895. A few weeks later on December 10, Alfred Nobel died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63 (Gray 46).
For Alfred’s will to be carried out the Nobel Foundation was established in 1900, in order to administer the Nobel Prizes. Different institutions carried out in selecting and awarding a winner in each field. The candidates of the Nobel Prize are nominated from 1000 experts in that specific field. The various Nobel committees then work to select a winner by early fall. The Nobel Committee may sometimes decide not to award a prize that year which in its history has happened 19 times (Keene 11).
Alfred Nobel himself would hardly have dreamed of the impact the Nobel Prizes, a fulfillment of his lifetime interests, would have in the future. At the end of Alfred’s life he was the owner of more than 350 patents that revolutionized many industries and he achieved lasting fame by leaving his estate in trust to establish prizes for individuals whose contributions inspired the world.
