1. Basic Family Background

a. Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833.

b. His father Immanuel Nobel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges and buildings in Stockholm.

c. In connection with his construction work Immanuel Nobel also experimented with different techniques for blasting rocks.

d. Alfred's mother, born Andriette Ahlsell, came from a wealthy family.

e. Because of difficulties in his construction work caused by the loss of some barges of building material, Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy the same year Alfred Nobel was born.

2. Immigration to Russia

a. In 1837 Immanuel Nobel left Stockholm and his family to start a new career in Finland and in Russia.

b. To support the family, Andriette Nobel started a grocery store which provided some income for the family.

c. Meanwhile, Immanuel Nobel was successful in his new enterprise in St. Petersburg, Russia.-- He started a mechanical workshop which provided equipment for the Russian army and he also convinced the Tsar and his generals that naval mines could be used to block enemy naval ships from threatening the city.

d. The naval mines designed by Immanuel Nobel were simple devices made which consisted of wooden casks filled with gunpowder. These devices were used to fight against the British Royal Navy during the Crimean war (1853-1856).

e. Immanuel Nobel was also a pioneer in arms manufacture and in designing steam engines.

3. The Family Moves to Russia

a. Because of success in his industrial and business ventures, Immanuel Nobel was able, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg.

b. There, his sons were given a first class education by private teachers. The training included natural sciences, languages and literature.

4. The Education of Alfred James

a. By the age of 17 Alfred Nobel was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German.

b. His primary interests were in English literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics. Alfred's father, who wanted his sons to join his enterprise as engineers, disliked Alfred's interest in poetry and found his son rather introverted.

c. In order to widen Alfred's horizons his father sent him abroad for further training in chemical engineering.

d. During a two year period Alfred Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States.

g. In Paris, he worked in the private laboratory of Professor T. J. Pelouze, a famous chemist.

h. There he met the young Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero who, three years earlier, had invented nitroglycerine, a highly explosive liquid.

5. The Power of Nitroglycerine

q. Nitroglycerine was produced by mixing glycerine with sulfuric and nitric acid.

b. It was considered too dangerous to be of any practical use.

c. Although it was more powerful than gunpowder, the liquid would explode in a very unpredictable manner as a result of heat and pressure.

d. Alfred Nobel became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be put to practical use in construction work.

e. He also realized that the safety problems had to be solved.

6. The Return to Russia

a. In 1852 Alfred Nobel was asked to come back and work in the family enterprise which was booming because of its deliveries to the Russian army.

b. At this time ALfred James and his father performed experiments to develop nitroglycerine as a commercially and technically useful explosive.

c. As the war ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel was again forced into bankruptcy.

7. The Return to Sweden

a. Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm.

b. His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg.

c. With some difficulties they managed to salvage the family enterprise and then went on to develop the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They were very successful and became some of the wealthiest persons of their time.

8. The Development of Dynamite

a. After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel concentrated on developing nitroglycerine as an explosive.

b. Several explosions, including one (1864) in which his brother Emil and several other persons were killed, convinced the authorities that nitroglycerine production was exceedingly dangerous.

c. They forbade further experimentation with nitroglycerine within the Stockholm city limits and Alfred Nobel had to move his experimentation to a barge anchored on Lake Mälaren.

d. Alfred was not discouraged and in 1864 he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerine.

e. To make the handling of nitroglycerine safer Alfred Nobel experimented with different additives.

f. He soon found that mixing nitroglycerine with silica would turn the liquid into a paste which could be shaped into rods of a size and form suitable for insertion into drilling holes.

g. In 1867 he patented this material under the name of dynamite.

h. To be able to detonate the dynamite rods he also invented a detonator (blasting cap) which could be ignited by lighting a fuse.

i. These inventions were made at the same time as the diamond drilling crown and the pneumatic drill came into general use.

j. Together these inventions drastically reduced the cost of blasting rock, drilling tunnels, building canals and many other forms of construction work.