Alfred Nobel The name of Alfred Nobel is now known primarily thanks to the prize he created. During his lifetime, his reputation was completely different: Nobel was called the "king of dynamite" and "mass murderer"

Alfred Nobel

The name of Alfred Nobel is now known primarily thanks to the prize he created. During his lifetime, his reputation was completely different: Nobel was called the "king of dynamite" and "mass murderer", although he was a pacifist and supported the use of dynamite for peaceful purposes. The outstanding inventor and entrepreneur did his best to make the world remember him in a positive light.

Alfred Nobel

The early years of Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833. The biography of the father of the entrepreneur Emmanuel Nobel deserves a separate story. In his youth, he signed up as a sailor on a sailing ship, wanting to see the world, and after returning to Sweden, he became interested in chemistry and was educated as an architect.

Nobel Sr. did not have a permanent job, and he combined chemical experiments with temporary earnings: in particular, he built bridges and buildings, and restored some of them, including at his own expense. He also worked in the field of machine tools and experimented with explosives, trying to create a mine of his own design.

Emmanuel was inventive and enterprising, but not all of his ideas ended successfully, and his inventions did not find application in Sweden. The situation of the Nobels was complicated by the fire, due to which the family lost the house and a significant part of the property. In 1833, Emmanuel, who was on the list of debtors to the tax police, declared bankruptcy.

Nobel's attempts to start a new business or find a job ended with the fact that in 1835 he founded a rubber factory. But this venture ended unsuccessfully, and Nobel, fleeing a debt prison, moved to Finland, which was at that time part of the Russian Empire. He left his family in Sweden, hoping to quickly find something to do in a new place and take his relatives to him.

Responsibility for the children fell entirely on the mother of Alfred Andrietta. She opened a small grocery store, but the profit from the trade was minimal. The eldest sons Ludwig and Robert were selling matches on the street. One day Robert, returning from school, lost a coin, and this was a financial blow for the family.

The early childhood of Alfred Nobel cannot be called easy. He himself was a sickly and melancholic boy and preferred books to his friends. Alfred went to school in 1841 and established himself as a brilliant student, but he was not very well received in the team. He did not stay at this school: just a year later, the family moved to Emmanuel in St. Petersburg.

According to one version , Nobel Sr. ended up in Russia at the invitation of the government. According to the other, he went to Russia in the hope that the country's aggressive policy would help him create his own successful business.

Nobel showed the Russian Ministry of War the sea mine he had created, and he was given 25 thousand rubles to set up an enterprise and told to continue development. Later , another 40 thousand rubles were added to this amount , and the mine creator received permission to build a foundry.

Inspired by success, Emmanuel did not stop there and continued to develop his ideas in various industries. Among other things, he is credited with creating a heating system with circulating hot water.

The financial condition of the Nobels gradually strengthened, Emmanuel was able to pay the children a good education and repay debts to Swedish creditors. Alfred studied at home, one of his mentors was Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin, a prominent chemist, later the head of the Russian Chemical Society.

It is believed that Nobel's successes are associated precisely with learning from Zinin. Thanks to the teacher of languages ​​and history, Lara Santesson, Alfredo learned Swedish, Russian, French, English and German.

When Alfred Nobel was 17 years old, his father, on the advice of Zimin, sent him on a two-year journey. Alfred visited the United States and most of Europe. He spent a long time in France, where he studied physics and chemistry in the laboratory of Jules Pelusa.

Here Nobel met Ascanio Sobrero, who was the first to receive nitroglycerin in 1847 . Sobrero immediately established that the substance was explosive. Continuing the experiments, he added nitroglycerin to the dog's food, and the dog died. Poisons at that time were used with might and main in medicine, and Sobrero found the substance to be used in this area. It is believed that Nobel first encountered nitroglycerin in the form of a medicine.

In addition, in the USA, Nobel managed to meet with John Erickson, the creator of the first heat engine and designer of warships.

Alfred returned to Russia in 1852 and immediately began working at his father's company. On the eve of the Crimean War, the Nobels received large orders for mines - largely due to the fact that the War Ministry, not without reason, feared the allied fleet and wanted to secure Kronstadt, Revel and Sveaborg.

The Nobels produced weapons, lathes and railway sleepers. With Alfred's suggestion, the production of steam engines, necessary for the creation of the Russian steamship fleet, began.
Alfred Nobel in his youth

During the Crimean War, which ended sadly for Russia , orders from the War Ministry grew continuously. There is a version that it was thanks to the Nobel mines that the Allied fleet did not achieve its goals in the Gulf of Finland. In 1856 the war ended, which reduced the number of contracts. Alexander II, who recently ascended the throne, preferred to purchase weapons from foreign manufacturers.

The Nobels adapted to the changing conditions and began building steamers. There is information that they have created passenger shipping in the Caspian Sea and on the Volga. Passenger ships created for peaceful purposes do not need frequent updates, the flow of orders was small, and the Nobels' enterprise fell into decay.

Emmanuel tried to save the situation and even sent Alfred to Europe to improve relations with the largest financiers, but this trip did not end with anything . Probably, Alfred was not the best negotiator, and the choice fell on him largely because of his knowledge of languages.

Emmanuel began to visit Sweden more often and engage in new experiments - he liked invention much more than business. Nobel's sons tried to get things going, but they did not achieve much success. In 1859, the family's businesses fell into decay.

Emmanuel with his wife and youngest son Emil returned to live in Sweden, while the rest of their sons remained in Russia for some time. Subsequently, Ludwig, whom Nobel Sr. considered a genius, will earn money from the bankruptcy of his father's company, and in 1862 he will create the Ludwig Nobel plant, better known as the Russian Diesel. Ludwig's elder brother Robert will work here.