(1801-1872) Immanuel Nobel Father of Alfred Nobel. Self-taught inventor and building contractor in Stockholm. Immanuel Nobel grew up in a poor family who could not afford any formal education. His father taught him how to read and write. At the age of 14 he became a sailor. Exactly what Immanuel did after his return to…

Nitroglycerine is an explosive liquid which was first made by Ascanio Sobrero in 1846 by treating glycerol with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid. The reaction which follows is highly exothermic, i.e. it generates heat and will result in an explosion of nitroglycerine, unless the mixture is cooled while the reaction is taking place.…

(1805-1889) Mother of Alfred (1833-1896), Robert (1829-1896), Ludvig (1831-1888), Emil (1843-1864) and two children who died as infants. Andriette Nobel (maiden name Ahlsell) was a gifted woman, daughter of an accountant. In 1827 she married Immanuel Nobel and for a couple of years the two lived in Stockholm under reasonable economic conditions. In 1833 Immanuel…

more

>

by John E. Dolan Unlike most inventors Alfred Nobel combined technical creativity with commercial flair, both to a very high degree. A lack of capital proved no hindrance to Nobel and having borrowed it he had, within ten years, founded an international group of dynamite companies in Sweden, Finland, Germany and Norway before turning his…