Nobel

Nobel

Alfred Bernhard . 1833--96, Swedish chemist and philanthropist, noted for his invention of dynamite (1866) and his bequest founding the Nobel prizes

---

Nobel

monetary awards for outstanding contributions benefiting mankind. [World. Hist.: Wheeler, 718]

See : Prize

---

Nobel

a family of Swedish inventors and industrialists.

Immanuel Nobel. Born Mar. 24, 1801; died Sept. 3, 1872. Inventor of underwater mines. Between 1842 and 1859, Immanuel lived in St. Petersburg, where he established a machine shop. During the Crimean War (1853–56) he supplied the Russian Army with weapons and mines.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel. Born Oct. 21, 1833, in Stockholm; died Dec. 10, 1896, in San Remo, Italy. Son of Immanuel Nobel and the founder of the Nobel Prizes. In Russian, Alfred became acquainted with N. N. Zinin’s and V. F. Petrushevskii’s work on the chemistry and practical application of nitroglycerin. In 1863 he began producing explosives, which were called dynamite, and in 1867 he obtained a British patent for dynamite. In 1867 he was also granted a British patent for the first detonator, containing fulminate of mercury. He was the organizer and co-owner of dynamite factories in almost all the countries of Western Europe, which were consolidated in to two trusts. He was a member of the London Royal Society and of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Ludwig Nobel. Born July 27, 1831; died Apr. 12, 1888. Son of Immanuel Nobel. Entrepreneur and builder of machine tools. Member of the Russian Technical Society. Ludwig expanded the enterprises established by his father in St. Petersburg into the large Ludwig Nobel Machine-building Works (now the Russian Diesel Works). In 1876, with his brothers Robert and Alfred, he founded a petroleum company in Baku (called the Nobel Brothers Company from 1879), which became the largest oil company in Russia.

Immanuel Nobel. Born June 22, 1859; died May 31, 1932. Son of Ludwig Nobel. Immanuel headed the Nobel Brothers Company, the Ludwig Nobel Company, and other enterprises from 1888 to 1917 and was influential in Russian business organizations. He went to Sweden early in 1918.