Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden the year of 1883. He was a chemist, engineer, innovator, and also an armaments manufacturer.
The dynamite he invented consisted of nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth. This was later patented 1867 as “dynamite”. It was an important explosive at that time. Later on he tried experimenting with it and combined nitroglycerin with different nitrocellulose compounds . He combined it with another nitrate explosive and obtained from that a transparent, jelly-like substance which was even more powerful than dynamite. It was called “Gelignite”, also named blasting gelatin was patented in 1876. After he had invented these explosives, his later researches resulted in the founding of ballistite. This was a precursor of many modern smokeless powder explosives and is still being used as an efficient rocket propellant.
He had many students and one day in 1864 a big explosion occurred at their factory in Heleneborg in Stockholm killing five people. Alfred’s younger brother Emil died in the explosion.
When Nobel was at his best, he owned over 355 different patents and the dynamite was the most famous of them. Before he died, he signed a will and instituted the Nobel Prizes from his big fortune.
/Anton
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