The Detonics Research Laboratory around 1963. Copyright © Nitro Nobel

Heleneborg – after the explosion in 1864.  

The Salpeter factory. A drawing by Olle Rydberg (above) and a recently taken picture (below).

by Birgitta Lemmel The explosives plant at Vinterviken (Winter Bay) just outside Stockholm, Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget, was Alfred Nobel’s very first company. The manufacture of nitroglycerine on an industrial scale started there as early as 1865, and for more than fifty years the Vinterviken factory was to deliver Nobel explosives and blasting devices of various kinds…

An advertisement for Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget after the company had started manufacturing Nobel’s Extra-Dynamite. It shows the working earlier and later methods used in producing dynamite.

Alfred Nobel’s eldest brother, Robert Nobel.

One of the founders of Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget (later Nitro Nobel), Smitt was Chairman of the Board from 1864 to 1904. In the 1850s Smitt amassed a fortune in South America. He liquidated his assets in 1856 and returned to Stockholm. There, his prudent property investments, particularly in the Kungsholmen district, earned him the sobriquet “King…

by Sven Tägil When Alfred Nobel’s will was made known after his death in San Remo on 10 December 1896, and when it was disclosed that he had established a special peace prize, this immediately created a great international sensation. The name Nobel was connected with explosives and with inventions useful to the art of…

The sulfuric acid factory before it was renovated. Copyright © Nitro Nobel Workers outside the factory. Copyright © Nitro Nobel   The sulfuric acid factory. Drawing by Olle Rydberg Copyright © Nitro Nobel  

The factory at Vinterviken was destroyed more than once by terrible explosions. Sketch by R. Haglund.