1833-1896

Swedish Chemist, Engineer and Industrialist

As the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel amassed great wealth producing instruments of destruction. He left the majority of his fortune to establishing the Nobel Foundation, among whose prizes is the prestigious award for the promotion of peace.

Nobel's education received an important push when his father found success as a manufacturer of explosive mines and machines tools in St. Petersburg. The family left Stockholm to join his father in Russia, enabling the young Nobel to study under private tutors. Fluent in several languages, Nobel showed great interest in engineering and chemistry. For a year he studied in Paris under the noted chemist Theophile Jules Pelouze (1807-1867); while most regard Christian Schonbein (1799-1868) as the inventor of guncotton, some attribute the honor to Pelouze. Nobel then traveled to the United States and worked for four years under John...