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Alfred Bernhard Nobel the Founder of the Great Global Awards

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Alfred Bernhard Nobel the Founder of the Great Global Awards GENERAL ARTICLE Alfred Bernhard Nobel The Founder of the Great Global Awards Gopalpur Nagendrappa Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden, but lived in many countries in Europe at different points of time. He went through many ups and downs during his life. He invented dynamite, a controllable explosive, which greatly enhanced the pace of industrialization by accelerating the process of construction of roads, railways, canals, bridges, tunnels, dams and other G Nagendrappa was a structures, and the digging of mines. His business swelled and Professor of Organic spread to many parts of the globe. He braved many adverse Chemistry at Bangalore University, and Head of situations including poor health and frequent factory explo- the Department of sions, one of which took the life of his young brother, hostilities Medicinal Chemistry, Sri and criticisms. At the same time he earned a huge fortune. He Ramachandra (Medical) set aside most of his wealth to institute awards, now known as University, Chennai. He is currently in Jain Univer- Nobel Prizes. Nobel was not only a prolific inventor (with 355 sity, Bangalore. He patents), but also was endowed with literary talent. continues to teach and do research. His work is in Every construction work, be it a bridge, building, dam, tunnel or the area of organosilicon canal or digging a mine or quarrying stone, needs blasting of chemistry, synthetic and rocks at some stage. For all these activities dynamite is being used mechanistic organic chemistry, and clay- since a century and a half. Even today it is widely used in mining, catalysed organic reactions quarrying and construction works. The invention of dynamite (Green Chemistry). greatly enhanced the pace of industrialisation by making it easier to lay roads and railroads in difficult terrains and build canals which helped transportation of goods and humans economically by cutting distance, time and cost enormously. The success of dynamite was so great that its inventor-producer Alfred Nobel became the richest man of Europe within a short span of time. There are few inventors who could be placed in the same class as Alfred Nobel. He combined in him many great qualities. Apart Keywords from being a prolific inventor with 355 patents to his credit, he Nitroglycerine, kieselguhr, col- lodion, guncotton, dynamite, was a very successful entrepreneur, a polyglot with equal fluency smokeless powder, industrializa- in Swedish, English, German, French and Russian and wrote tion, ballistite. volumes of letters in all these languages, a writer of novels, 500 RESONANCE June 2013 GENERAL ARTICLE poetry, drama, with love for English literature and poetry, a Alfred was a sick scientist with interest in Physics and Chemistry, and finally a child and it was only philanthropist. It is unusual for a man who is proficient in because of his literature to be such a successful inventor and to have such mother’s assiduous entrepreneurial skill as Alfred Nobel. care that he survived. His health remained Early Life in Sweden and Russia fragile all through his Alfred Nobel was born on 21st of October 1833 in the Swedish life. capital city of Stockholm, to Immanuel Nobel (1801–1872) and Karolina Andriette Ahlsell-Nobel. Immanuel Nobel was an archi- tect and engineer having the business of construction of buildings and bridges. Being in this kind of enterprise, he was making gun powder for blasting rocks. He was an inventor who designed rotary lathe used for making plywood. Alfred was the fourth child among eight siblings of whom only four survived, namely, himself, his two older brothers (Robert and Ludvig) and one younger brother (Emil). Alfred was a sick child and it was only because of his mother’s assiduous care that he survived. This perhaps made him have a special bond of love with his mother throughout her life. His health remained fragile all through his life. Immanuel’s construction work was running well. But unfortunately, he underwent huge losses and became bankrupt as some barges with his construction materials sank in the same year Alfred was born. As a result he could not revive his business and left Sweden in 1837 to find a better place to re- establish his business, leaving behind his family in Stockholm. Immanuel Nobel He first went to Finland and then to St. Petersburg in Russia. started a mechanical workshop in St. The difficult task of running the household and taking care of the Petersburg and small children unexpectedly fell on the shoulders of Andriette produced equipment (who came from a wealthy family of Ahlsell into prosperous for the Russian Army. Nobel family). She opened a grocery shop and with the modest He designed naval income it generated she managed to look after the family. mines and Immanuel Nobel started a mechanical workshop in St. Petersburg demonstrated their and produced equipment for the Russian Army. He designed explosive power in naval mines and demonstrated to Tsar Nicholas I and his army submerged condition. RESONANCE June 2013 501 GENERAL ARTICLE Alfred achieved generals their explosive power in submerged condition which fluency in several thus could act as deterrent to enemy ships entering coastal terri- languages that tory. By supplying arms and equipment to the Russian army and included Swedish making other industrial products, Immanuel Nobel achieved good (mother tongue), success in his business. By 1842 he was doing well enough to Russian, French, bring his family to St. Petersburg. (Emil was born in 1843). He English and was also able to hire private teachers to give his children good German. education which included science, literature, and languages. Alfred achieved fluency in several languages that included Swedish (mother tongue), Russian, French, English and German. He had an interest in chemistry, but at the same time had a great love for In Paris, he met English literature and poetry. His father, however, did not like Ascanio Sobrero, an Alfred’s literary pursuits as he wanted his sons to become engi- Italian chemist who neers and join his industry. Despite his love for literature Alfred had synthesized was not averse to train in chemistry. In 1850 his father sent him to nitroglycerine in other countries to get training in chemical engineering. He spent 1846, by treating the next two years in Sweden, Germany, France and the US. In glycerine with a France, he worked with the well-known chemist Thomas J Pelouze mixture of sulphuric in Paris. There he met Ascanio Sobrero, an Italian chemist who and nitric acid. had synthesized nitroglycerine (Box 1) in 1846, by treating Box 1. Nitroglycerine Nitroglycerine is the common name of the main explosive chemical component in dynamite. Its other common name is glyceryl nitrate and the IUPAC name is 1,2,3-trinitroxy-propane. It is prepared by nitrating glycerine with a nitrating mixture of nitric acid and sulphuric acid. O2NO ONO2 O NO 2 When ignited it decomposes to produce a mixture of several gases. heat or 4 C H N O 6 N + 12 CO + 7 O + 10 H O (g) 3 5 3 9 shock 2 2 2 The sudden evolution of huge volume of gases in an extremely brief period creates enormous pressure causing explosion. Nitroglycerine freezes at 11oC and in frozen condition it is much less sensitive. Nitroglycerine, interestingly, is a medicine used in the form of spray and tablet to treat chest pain, angina (narrowing of arteries). Alfred Nobel was one of the early patients to be prescribed nitroglycerine for his heart condition. 502 RESONANCE June 2013 GENERAL ARTICLE glycerine with a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acid. Working When the war ended with nitroglycerine, Sobrero had noted the highly dangerous and in 1856, the arms unpredictable explosive property of this oil and had concluded business came that it cannot find any practical applications. crashing down. Immanuel Nobel had After his two-year sojourn abroad with a final visit to the US, to face a second where he spent some time with Swedish-American engineer John bankruptcy, after Ericson, the inventor of screw propeller for ships, Alfred returned enjoying two decades to St. Petersburg to join hands with his father in his business. of prosperity. With Alfred’s fresh knowledge about the new explosive material and his father’s vast experience with gun powder, the father and son duo started experimenting with nitroglycerine, but nothing tangible emerged then. In 1853 the Crimean War (Box 2) started and the Russian army’s demand for arms, ammunition and equipment produced by the Nobel Company soared as also its profits. However, when the war ended in 1856, the arms business came crashing down, not only because the war was over, but also because Tsar Nicholas I died in 1855 and the new Tsar Alexander II cut even the normal spending on arms. Under these circumstances, Immanuel Nobel had to face a second bankruptcy, after enjoying two decades of prosperity. Leaving Robert, Ludvig and Alfred to take care of the factory under the technical management of Ludvig, Immanuel Nobel returned to Sweden in 1859 with his wife and son Emil. He resumed his business of gunpowder explosives and engineering work in Stockholm. Box 2. Crimean War A war fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of British, French and Ottoman Empires and the Scandinavian kingdom during October 1853–February 1856. The Ottoman Empire or the Turkish Empire founded in 1299 that reached its peak just before the 17th century was on the decline by the middle of the 19th century. The Crimean war was the result of several European powers trying to establish their influence over the territories of the now weak Ottoman Empire. The war was fought mainly on the Cremian Peninsula, located in the Black Sea.
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