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1 Nobel, Immanuel
[br]b. 1801 Gävle, Swedend. 3 September 1872 Stockholm, Sweden[br]Swedish inventor and industrialist, particularly noted for his work on mines and explosives.[br]The son of a barber-surgeon who deserted his family to serve in the Swedish army, Nobel showed little interest in academic pursuits as a child and was sent to sea at the age of 16, but jumped ship in Egypt and was eventually employed as an architect by the pasha. Returning to Sweden, he won a scholarship to the Stockholm School of Architecture, where he studied from 1821 to 1825 and was awarded a number of prizes. His interest then leaned towards mechanical matters and he transferred to the Stockholm School of Engineering. Designs for linen-finishing machines won him a prize there, and he also patented a means of transforming rotary into reciprocating movement. He then entered the real-estate business and was successful until a fire in 1833 destroyed his house and everything he owned. By this time he had married and had two sons, with a third, Alfred (of Nobel Prize fame; see Alfred Nobel), on the way. Moving to more modest quarters on the outskirts of Stockholm, Immanuel resumed his inventions, concentrating largely on India rubber, which he applied to surgical instruments and military equipment, including a rubber knapsack.It was talk of plans to construct a canal at Suez that first excited his interest in explosives. He saw them as a means of making mining more efficient and began to experiment in his backyard. However, this made him unpopular with his neighbours, and the city authorities ordered him to cease his investigations. By this time he was deeply in debt and in 1837 moved to Finland, leaving his family in Stockholm. He hoped to interest the Russians in land and sea mines and, after some four years, succeeded in obtaining financial backing from the Ministry of War, enabling him to set up a foundry and arms factory in St Petersburg and to bring his family over. By 1850 he was clear of debt in Sweden and had begun to acquire a high reputation as an inventor and industrialist. His invention of the horned contact mine was to be the basic pattern of the sea mine for almost the next 100 years, but he also created and manufactured a central-heating system based on hot-water pipes. His three sons, Ludwig, Robert and Alfred, had now joined him in his business, but even so the outbreak of war with Britain and France in the Crimea placed severe pressures on him. The Russians looked to him to convert their navy from sail to steam, even though he had no experience in naval propulsion, but the aftermath of the Crimean War brought financial ruin once more to Immanuel. Amongst the reforms brought in by Tsar Alexander II was a reliance on imports to equip the armed forces, so all domestic arms contracts were abruptly cancelled, including those being undertaken by Nobel. Unable to raise money from the banks, Immanuel was forced to declare himself bankrupt and leave Russia for his native Sweden. Nobel then reverted to his study of explosives, particularly of how to adapt the then highly unstable nitroglycerine, which had first been developed by Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, for blasting and mining. Nobel believed that this could be done by mixing it with gunpowder, but could not establish the right proportions. His son Alfred pursued the matter semi-independently and eventually evolved the principle of the primary charge (and through it created the blasting cap), having taken out a patent for a nitroglycerine product in his own name; the eventual result of this was called dynamite. Father and son eventually fell out over Alfred's independent line, but worse was to follow. In September 1864 Immanuel's youngest son, Oscar, then studying chemistry at Uppsala University, was killed in an explosion in Alfred's laboratory: Immanuel suffered a stroke, but this only temporarily incapacitated him, and he continued to put forward new ideas. These included making timber a more flexible material through gluing crossed veneers under pressure and bending waste timber under steam, a concept which eventually came to fruition in the form of plywood.In 1868 Immanuel and Alfred were jointly awarded the prestigious Letterstedt Prize for their work on explosives, but Alfred never for-gave his father for retaining the medal without offering it to him.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsImperial Gold Medal (Russia) 1853. Swedish Academy of Science Letterstedt Prize (jointly with son Alfred) 1868.BibliographyImmanuel Nobel produced a short handwritten account of his early life 1813–37, which is now in the possession of one of his descendants. He also had published three short books during the last decade of his life— Cheap Defence of the Country's Roads (on land mines), Cheap Defence of the Archipelagos (on sea mines), and Proposal for the Country's Defence (1871)—as well as his pamphlet (1870) on making wood a more physically flexible product.Further ReadingNo biographies of Immanuel Nobel exist, but his life is detailed in a number of books on his son Alfred.CM -
2 Nobel, Alfred Bernhard
[br]b. 21 October 1833 Stockholm, Swedend. 10 December 1896 San Remo, Italy[br]Swedish industrialist, inventor of dynamite, founder of the Nobel Prizes.[br]Alfred's father, Immanuel Nobel, builder, industrialist and inventor, encouraged his sons to follow his example of inventiveness. Alfred's education was interrupted when the family moved to St Petersburg, but was continued privately and was followed by a period of travel. He thus acquired a good knowledge of chemistry and became an excellent linguist.During the Crimean War, Nobel worked for his father's firm in supplying war materials. The cancellation of agreements with the Russian Government at the end of the war bankrupted the firm, but Alfred and his brother Immanuel continued their interest in explosives, working on improved methods of making nitroglycerine. In 1863 Nobel patented his first major invention, a detonator that introduced the principle of detonation by shock, by using a small charge of nitroglycerine in a metal cap with detonating or fulminating mercury. Two years later Nobel set up the world's first nitroglycerine factory in an isolated area outside Stockholm. This led to several other plants and improved methods for making and handling the explosive. Yet Nobel remained aware of the dangers of liquid nitroglycerine, and after many experiments he was able in 1867 to take out a patent for dynamite, a safe, solid and pliable form of nitroglycerine, mixed with kieselguhr. At last, nitroglycerine, discovered by Sobrero in 1847, had been transformed into a useful explosive; Nobel began to promote a worldwide industry for its manufacture. Dynamite still had disadvantages, and Nobel continued his researches until, in 1875, he achieved blasting gelatin, a colloidal solution of nitrocellulose (gun cotton) in nitroglycerine. In many ways it proved to be the ideal explosive, more powerful than nitroglycerine alone, less sensitive to shock and resistant to moisture. It was variously called Nobel's Extra Dynamite, blasting gelatin and gelignite. It immediately went into production.Next, Nobel sought a smokeless powder for military purposes, and in 1887 he obtained a nearly smokeless blasting powder using nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose with 10 per cent camphor. Finally, a progressive, smokeless blasting powder was developed in 1896 at his San Remo laboratory.Nobel's interests went beyond explosives into other areas, such as electrochemistry, optics and biology; his patents amounted to 355 in various countries. However, it was the manufacture of explosives that made him a multimillionaire. At his death he left over £2 million, which he willed to funding awards "to those who during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".[br]Bibliography1875, On Modern Blasting Agents, Glasgow (his only book).Further ReadingH.Schuck et al., 1962, Nobel, the Man and His Prizes, Amsterdam.E.Bergengren, 1962, Alfred Nobel, the Man and His Work, London and New York (includes a supplement on the prizes and the Nobel institution).LRD -
3 Chemical technology
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4 Weapons and armour
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Armstrong, Sir William GeorgeCtesibius of AlexandriaZeng Gonglian -
5 Mining and extraction technology
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Biographical history of technology > Mining and extraction technology
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6 Sobrero, Ascanio
[br]b. 12 October 1812 Cassale, Monteferrato, Italyd. 26 May 1888 Turin, Italy[br]Italian chemist, inventor of nitroglycerine.[br]Sobrero initially studied medicine, qualifying as both a physician and surgeon, and then went on to study chemistry in Turin, Paris and Giessen. In 1847 he created nitroglycerine by slowly adding glycerine to a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. The explosive injured both him and a number of others in the laboratory, and he was so horrified by its power and its potential effect on warfare that he refused to exploit his discovery; its introduction into general use thus had to wait for Immanuel and Alfred Nobel. In 1849 Sobrero was appointed Professor of Applied Chemistry at the Technical Institute, Turin, and he later became Professor of Pure Chemistry as well. He retired in 1882.[br]BibliographyHe was the author of numerous scientific papers reflecting his wide-ranging interests in chemistry.CM
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Immanuel Nobel — (* 24. März 1801 in Gävle; † 3. September 1872 in Heleneborg) war ein schwedischer Ingenieur, Architekt, Erfinder und Industrieller. Sein Sohn Alfred Nobel, der das Unternehmen des Vaters fortführte, war der Begründer des Nobelpreises … Deutsch Wikipedia
Immanuel Nobel — Immanuel Nobel, né le 24 mars 1801 à Gävle, mort le 3 septembre 1872, était un ingénieur, architecte et homme d affaires suédois, père de Robert Nobel, Ludvig Nobel, Emil Nobel et Alfred Nobel, le fondateur … Wikipédia en Français
Nobel, Alfred Bernhard — ▪ Swedish inventor born Oct. 21, 1833, Stockholm, Sweden died Dec. 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist, who invented dynamite and other, more powerful explosives and who also founded the Nobel Prizes… … Universalium
Nobel: Der Mann hinter den Preisen — Alfred Nobel (1833 96) hielt nichts davon, Einzelheiten aus dem Leben anderer Leute zu erfahren. Er meinte: »Wer hat Zeit, Biografien zu lesen, und wer kann so naiv und liebenswürdig sein, sich dafür zu interessieren?« Und so war er denn auch… … Universal-Lexikon
Nobel: Erfinder des Dynamits und des Nobelpreises — Bekannt ist Alfred Nobel heute eigentlich nur noch durch die Preise, die er in seinem Testament stiftete und die alljährlich an seinem Todestag an diejenigen vergeben werden, die »im verflossenen Jahr der Menschheit den größten Nutzen geleistet … Universal-Lexikon
Immanuel Nobel — (1801 1872), Swedish engineer, architect, inventor and industrialist. He was the inventor of the rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing.He was the father of Robert Nobel, Ludvig Nobel and Alfred Nobel. Another son, Emil Oskar Nobel, died at… … Wikipedia
Nobel — bezeichnet Nobel (Münze), mittelalterliche englische Goldmünze Nobel Biocare, Schweizer schwedisches Biotechnikunternehmen eine ehemalige Sprengstofffirma, heute Akzo Nobel ein ehemaliges deutsches Chemie und Rüstungsunternehmen, siehe Dynamit… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Immanuel Nobelius — (* 1757 in Uppsala; † 1839 in Gävle) war ein schwedischer Arzt. Sein Sohn war der Industrielle Immanuel Nobel (1801 1872), sein Enkel der Unternehmer und Stifter des Nobelpreises Alfred Nobel (1833 1896). Leben Der Name Nobelius stammt vom… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Immanuel — stammt aus dem Hebräischen. Immanu el (עמנואל „mit uns ist Gott“ oder „mit uns sei Gott“). El ist der Singular des Wortes Elohim. Die lateinisch griechische Form des männlichen Vornamens lautet Emanuel. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Bibelstellen (aus der… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Nobel — (phonetic: [nobél]) can mean: Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel The Nobel family Alfred Nobel, (1833 1896), the inventor of dynamite, instituted the Nobel Prizes Immanuel Nobel, (1801… … Wikipedia
Immanuel Meyer-Pyritz — (* 16. März 1902 in Berlin; † 4. November 1974 ebenda) war ein Maler, Grafiker, Kunsthistoriker und Dozent an der Berliner Kunstakademie. Leben Der Sohn des Bildhauers Martin Meyer Pyritz wurde in Berlin geboren, wuchs aber bei Verwandten in… … Deutsch Wikipedia
