This Day in History, 1901 – First Nobel Prizes awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.
Full story, here.
Alfred Nobel was the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, he directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be “annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” He offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes. But it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war….
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In 1863, Nobel invented a way to control the detonation of nitroglycerin, a highly volatile liquid that had been recently discovered. It was previously regarded as too dangerous for use. Two years later, he invented the blasting cap, an improved detonator that inaugurated the modern use of high explosives. Previously, the most dependable explosive was black powder, a form of gunpowder.
Nitroglycerin remained dangerous, however, and in 1864 Nobel’s nitroglycerin factory blew up, killing his younger brother and several other people. Searching for a safer explosive, Nobel discovered in 1867 that the combination of nitroglycerin and a porous substance called kieselguhr produced a highly explosive mixture that was much safer to handle. He christened his invention “dynamite,” for the Greek word dynamis, meaning “power.” Securing patents on dynamite, Nobel acquired a fortune as humanity put his invention to use in construction and warfare.
In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin. In 1887 he introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of his brothers died in France. French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, “The merchant of death is dead.” Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies. In his later years he developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of the prizes. These were to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.