Alfred Nobel Essay example -- essays research papers

Alfred NobelAlfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 21, 1833.(Encarta) Hisfather Immanuel Nobel was an engineer and inventor who built bridges andbuildings in Stockholm. In connection with his construction work Immanuel Nobelalso experimented with different techniques of blasting rock. Alfreds mother,Andrietta Ahlsell came from a wealthy family. Due to misfortunes in theconstruction work caused by the neediness of some barges of building material,Immanuel Nobel was forced into bankruptcy the same year Alfred Nobel was born.In 1837, Immanuel Nobel left Stockholm and his family to start a new career inFinland and in Russia. To support the family, Andrietta Nobel started a grocerystore which provided a modest income. Meanwhile Immanuel Nobel was successful inhis new enterprise in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started a mechanically skillful workshopwhich provided equipment for the Russian army and he also convinced the Tsar andhis generals that maritime mines could be used to block enemy naval ships fromthreatening the city. The naval mines designed by Immanuel Nobel were simpledevices consisting of submerged wooden casks filled with gun powder. Anchoredbelow the surface of the Gulf of Finland they effectively deterred the BritishRoyal Navy from wretched into firing range of St. Petersburg during the Crimeanwar (1853-1856).Immanuel Nobel was also a pioneer in arms manufacture and in designing steamengines. Successful in his industrial and business ventures, Immanuel Nobel wasable, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg. There, his sons were givena first class education by surreptitious teachers. The training included naturalsciences, langu shape ups and literature. By the age of 17, Alfred Nobel was fluent inSwedish, Russian, French, English and German. His primary interests were inEnglish literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics. Alfredsfather, who wanted his sons to amount of money his enterprise as engineers, dislikedAl freds interest in poetry and found his son rather introverted. In order towiden Alfreds horizons his father sent him foreign for further training inchemical engineering. During a two year period, Alfred Nobel visited Sweden,Germany, France and the United States.(Schuck p. 113) In Paris, the city hecame to like best, he worked in the private laboratory of Professor T.J. Pelouze,a famous chemist. There he met the y... ...e Bjrkborn Manor became his Swedishhome.Alfred Nobel died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896. When his will wasopened it came as a surprise that his fortune was to be used for Prizes inPhysics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. The executorsof his will were two young engineers, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist.They set ab come in forming the Nobel Foundation as an system of rules to take care ofthe financial assets left by Nobel for this purpose and to coordinate the workof the Prize-Awarding Institutions. This was not without its difficulties sincethe will was contested by relatives and questioned by authorities in variouscountries.But as we all know, the legacy of Alfred Nobel lives on today. The prizes namedafter him are still the most coveted prizes for the recipients in theirrespective fields. Everyone will consider Alfred Nobel as a daring pioneer whoknew no limits.Many of the new advanced scientific discoveries made in the last century weresurely helped out by the work of Nobel. His Nobel prizes reward people ofscience and enable them to keep churning out new ways of accomplishing new featsthat have never been seek before