Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel was born 1833 in Stockholm. He died in 1896 in San Remo, Italy. He was a Swedish chemist, engineer and an innovator. Alfred Nobel is well known for being the inventor of the dynamite and The Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel was the third son of Immanuel Nobel and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. His father was the inventor of the modern plywood. Alfred moved to the United States to study chemistry and work for a couple of years. Alfred returned to Sweden with his father after the bankruptcy of their family business. He devoted himself to study of explosives and safe manufacture and use of nitroglycerine. A big explosion occurred on the third of September 1864 in Stockholm, the result was that five people got killed and one of them was Alfred’s younger brother Emil.

Alfred Nobel founded a prize that annually would be given away to different successful persons such as scientist or authors. The prize was established in 1895. The different prizes are in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. These prizes were first given away in 1901. There is also a prize in economics which is given away by The Sveriges Riksbank. That prize was established in 1968.

The ceremony has taken place on 10 December every year since 1901(with exceptions of World War I and World War II). The prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine and literature are given away in Stockholm, Sweden. Although the prize in economics isn’t actually a Nobel Prize, it is also given away along with the other prizes in Stockholm. The peace prize is given away in Oslo, Norway.

Each winner receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money depending on the Nobel Foundations income that year. In 2009, each prize was worth 10 million SEK. This is approximately 1 million Euros.

http://www.nobelprize.org

The Dynamite

The Dynamite is an invention by Alfred Nobel in Krümmel, Germany, and was invented in 1866. It became popular since it was stronger than black powder (another explosive material), but also more safe. The dynamite made it possible to transport explosive materials with high security.

Even though the dynamite is the most famous of Nobel’s inventions, he also invented other explosive materials. 1875 he took the explosive-technology even further when he invented the Gelignite, also called blasting gelatin. With this kind of explosive-material he avoided the material to freeze, like the dynamite did.

Nowadays, you can hardly buy the dynamite. Instead there’s another product on the market, called Dynamex.