ALFRED NOBEL

Evening Star, Issue 19454, 12 January 1927, Page 11

ALFRED NOBEL

MAKER OF DYNAMITE STORY OF A GREAT INVENTION The recent award of Nobel prizes to Chamberlain, Briand, Stresomann, and Shaw recalls the inventive genius of the famous Swedish scientist whose colossal fortune was devoted to the assistance of laboratory, literary, and pacifist endeavor. Born at Stockholm in 1833, his earliest years were influenced by tho scientific atmosphere in which the elder Nobel moved. Before the son had reached his tenth year the father entered the service of,the Russian Government, and soon became famous as the foremost chemical expert in the land of the Tsars. His four sons received a thorough grounding in research,'assisted not only by the parent’s skill and knowledge, but also by the immense technical resources of the workshops that the latter had constructed at the capital. When Alfred was still in his teens he was despatched to America for training in mechanical engineering under the direction of a famous compatriot, John Ericsson, whose achievements _in marine construction and invention earned him the admiration of the world.

But the boy did not find congenial this branch of scientific investigation, and returned to Sweden, there to_ devote his life to the study of explosives. There is an erroneous, but common, impression that Nobel was the inventor of nitre-glycerine, but the discovery of this deadly substance is attributed to Sobrero, an Italian professor at the University of Tunis. He poured ordinary glycerine drop by crop into a mixture of strong nitric and sulphuric acids kept at a low temperature. Upon pouring the product into water drops of an oily nature immediately commenced to form in the bottom _ of the vessel. Sobrero separated this substance unaware of the explosive nature of the new compound, but he was not long left in ignorance of its potentialities. One day he was_ evaporating a minute quantity of it in a glass dish over a lamp, when a terrific explosion followed, and the dish was blown to atoms. On another occasion, while engaged in heating a single drop in a glass tube, the substance exploded, injuring his hands and face. But until Nobel began the manufacture of nitro-glycerine it was regarded merely as a curiosity, and a particularly abhorrent and dangerous curiosity at that. He was prohibited from building factories in the vicinity of towns, and for a time he was constrained to carry on research aboard a barge anchored in Lake Yalaren. A company was organised, but the frequency of explosions seemed certain to render futile any attempt to manufacture on a large scale. A fortunate accident solved the apparently insoluble problem of discovering a method to render the liquid explosive comparatively innocuous for transport or storage. Nobel was unloading cans of nitrogen from his van when he noticed that one of the containers had leaked its treacherous contents into the porous sand in which the cans were packed. The mixture had hardened into a solid mass, and at once the inventor recognised the value of the apparent mishap. The carriage of the liquid explosive had become almost impossible. A steamer laden with a cargo had been scattered to the heavens while en route to Chile, and railroad freights had suffered a similar fate. No one would agree to handle the perilous consignments, and Governments forbade the use of nitro-gly. cerine. But the accident to the container gave Nobel his opportunity to develop the discovery that ultimately produced dynamite. Many times hie endangered his life, but the conversion of the liquid into a solid by absorption in porous earth saved the day for high explosives. This invention made him wealthy,' and laid the foundations of the riches that later immortalised his name. Within five years of the perfection of dynamite he had established plants in practically every country in Europe and in the United States. When he came to New York with I samples of his “safe explosive ” ho found that his fame had preceded him. I The proprietor of the hotel at which he stopped, upon learning what a possibly dangerous guest he might he harboring, asked him to leave. But minor embarrassments did not hinder his | widespread and immediate success. Orders for the amazing material simply inundated his works and factories. The construction of the St. Gothard tunnel was considerably facilitated and expedited by the use of dynamite. It was a priceless boon to engineering construction of all varieties.

Nobel was not content with this discovery, but conjectured _ that a better solidifier for the liquid nitrogen was obtainable. By dissolving gun cotton in nitro-glycerine he produced a substance impervious to shock, and this, mixed with petroleum jelly, proved to bo an ideal explosive lor big guns. Thus Nobel gave to the world the first of those high explosives that have made modern war so appallingly lethal and destructive. Although he placed in the hands of the war-workers their most deadly ammunition, it was for the peaceful pursuits of industry that he intended his inventions. There is little doubt that most modern engineering and mining progress would have been impossible without these explosives. Such a stupendous task as the construction of the Panama Canal would have defied human effort had not rock-shat-tering substances torn _ the isthmus apart, and rendered possible the union of two oceans. But Nobel was more than an inventor of explosives. In England alone he took out over one hundred patents of various types, and devoted considerable attention to artificial indiarubher. With his brothers ho was a pioneer _in developing the Bussian oil fields, which proved one of the chief sources of his wealth. Science did not attract him lo the exclusion of art and letters. An accomplished linguist, he had travelled extensively, and possessed a culture that was catholic. He died in 1896, leaving a striking memorial in his famous prizes, which yearly focus attention on a few of the great ones of the earth.