 Photograph by Underwood & Underwood. |
THE NOBEL PRIZES BY DOROTHY DUDLEY LEAL |
The great problem of making war against war with a few peace prizes has been likened to fighting a city fire with a bottle of rose-water.
There are to-day sixteen million armed men in Europe, and great fleets of fighting ships upon the seas, while billions in money are spent each year to maintain them; as against alt this, there are a dozen or so Swedish gentlemen, gathered together to divide annually two hundred thousand dollars among five men who have earned recognition in one of five ways. There seems to be a hopeless inequality between the two forces; but time must prove whether these efforts, instituted by Alfred Nobel, shall be successful.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833. Emmanuel Nobel, his father, was an architect, of an inventive turn of mind, While Alfred was still very young, the family removed to St. Petersburg, where his father established torpedo-works, and, in the service of the Russian Government, at the time of the Crimean War, placed submarine mines in the harbor of Kronstadt, with the assistance of one of his sons, Robert. Three yeers after peace was made, in 1859, Emmanuel Nobel returned to Sweden, with his family, leaving his second son, Ludwig, in charge of the St. Petersburg factory. Several years before this, however, Alfred, leaving his family in St. Petersburg, had come to the United States, where, from 1850 to 1854, he studied mechanical engineering with his famous fellow-countryman, John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor.
For two years following the return of the family to Sweden, Alfred studied explosives with his father, and, in 1862, was the first manufacturer to produce nitroglycerin in large quantities. Two years later, his factory was destroyed by an explosion. The following year, however, he built another at Krümmel, on the Elbe, which is now the largest manufactory of explosives on the Continent.
In the factory which he built in Hamburg, he discovered, by accident, a new compound, which he called dynamite. It could not be exploded, like nitroglycerin, by shock, but only with a powerful detonator fixed in it with a fuse, This discovery revolulionized mining and engineering methods, and made possible the construction of our own Panama Canal and other important works of our time; while the manufacture of nitroglycerin in its various forms became a great industry, From this point his business prospered. In a comparatively short time, he formed one company in Sweden, two in Belgium, three in France, and three in the United States. and a factory was started in Scotland, which is now the largest of its kind in the world.
He generally chose his own countrymen for responsible positions, and among the vast army of workmen whom he employed, and with whom he was very generous, it is reported that he never had a strike. He was often spoken of as “Nobel by name; noble by nature.”
To know Nobel and to talk with him was intense enjoyment. as his conversational powers were remarkable. But distrusting himself, he was bashful to the point of timidity, and held himself aloof from social life. No one ever knew what he spent on charities, since he gave in secrecy.
What excitement there must have been when Alfred Nobel’s will was made public, in 1896!
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