INTERESTING STORY OF ALFRED NOBEL

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 8

INTERESTING STORY OF ALFRED NOBEL

'J'HANKS to the inventor of dynamite.

PEACE BY DYNAMITE

“Richest Vagabond in Europe”

writers, scientists, and pacifist! have received rewards worthy of their merits without distinction of nationality. writes Dominique Andre. Alfred Nobel’s life appears a complete contradiction, if one does not understand his aims and the manner in which he desired to make material power assist the ideal of moral progress, in which for him the first stage, the essential stage, was the suppression of wars.

His tather, Emmanuel Nobel, was self-educated; his poverty in youth did not allow him to cultivate any of his remarkable gifts. He was a rathei visionary inventor whom luck favoured only intermittently. His marriage was a happy cne and his wife, adored by the whole family, was always a source of helpful advice. Alfred Nobel, the third child of the marriage, was born in Stockholm in 1833. The following year, Emmanuel Nobel, ruined by a bankruptcy, went abroad, leaving his wife and three children in Sweden. By 1842 he had succeeded in ce-establishing his fortune, by working for the Russian Government perfecting mines, submarines, and othei instruments ol war.

He summoned his family to Russia and gave his sons the education oi which he himself had been deprived.

When Alfred was seventeen, he wao sent to America to complete hit engineering studies. On returning to

Europe, he made a long stay in France, where at twenty, he astonished everv body by his culture and the precocious delicacy of his judgments. One can picture him in 1853, in Paris, divided between his love of dreaming and his desire for action, reflecting on soyial, political, and moral questions. He fell m love with a mysterious young girl whose premature death embittered him so that he became practically a recluse.

He returned to Russia Next year, after the Tsar’s death the new Russian Government repudiated the agreements of the former Government with Emmanuel NobeJ and his factories were seized by his creditors. M. and Mme. Nobel returned to Eweden with their youngest son, Emil. The others remained in St. Petersbuig

where they lived m poverty until Alfred, who bravely continued his studies in chemistry, discovered nis

jxplosive, nitro-glycerine, in 1863. As ne was perfecting lus invention, .ns father summoned him to Sweden ihe old man believed he had the foi muia of a new powder. He had a labora tory adjoining his dwelling where he devoted himself to experiments, always believing himself on the eve of a success which would bring him wealth.

Alfred became the real scientist that his father tried- Lo be. He saw that the powder his father had spoken of was of no real interest. The same year he took out his first patient for nitroglycerine. In spite of dangers, difficulties, and catastrophes, he continued his research The first disaster caused by nitroglycerine affected the Nobels severely. A new laboratory constructed at Helenborg blew up in 1864. Six persons were killed, among them the youngest son. Emil.

The father had a stroke after this misfortune, and lived until 1871 in a sort of dream in which human utopias and science were mingled. A little before his death he confided to his son, Alfred, a discovery which should make of the holder of the secret: a dictator in questions ot war and peace, at least for a few centuries.

Alfred resembled his father sufficiently to wish to serve such an ideal, and his brain was better balanced, the means at his disposal greater. He experienced set backs, misunderstandings, skepticism, but never discouragement. In 1866 he discovered a formula to which he gave the name of dynamite; it was a more easily handled form of nitro-glycerine. Within ten years dynamite came into general use throughout the world. France was the last country to adopt it.

Alfred NobeJ established himself m Paris in 1873. Romantic memories perhaps attracted him there. Those who knew him remember him as a man very simple and discreet, an ascetic, frequently in ill-heaith, who lived almost entirely shut up within himself. He did all the good he could for human beings while personally avoiding them as much as possible.

He was so absorbed in scientific and philosophic research that he took no heed of his surroundings and neglected for a long time to furnish his large house, living in camp fashion, until one of his friends persuaded him to call in a furnisher.

“Bring in some furniture and arrange it as you like,” he said, refusing to give any more precise instructions.

Meals were no more important to him than furniture. He suffered with his stomach and never felt well except when fasting. He was called “the richest vagabond in Europe.” None of his domiciles were really home to him. A character impatient of restraints, excessive sensitiveness and nervousness and perhaps fidelity to a memory made him avoid the ties which bind most people.

The heir of a man wno had left to him in dying an illusory discovery. It became his programme and him aim to discover something which would make of the holder of his secret a dictator in questions of war and peace . . . One must realise that in order to form a just opinion of him. He persevered even beyond death

That was the key to his character itself by founding the prizes which bear his name; the peace prize was the origin of these foundations. But how did he envisage improvement in human relations?

He was liberal in his views and considered that 'ibertv begin* with

respect for the. ideas of others. To rr,e savages who wish to convert by force, to the brigands who aspire to the title of conqueror, Nobel wished to oppose an insurmountable barrier: “fear.”

The Swedish scientist played an Important role in the cause of pacifism at the end of last century but he did not adopt the ideas current among the pacifists of that period.

One cf the most enthusiastic of these. Baroness Von Suttner, tried to enrol him among her disciples A difficult task. Nobel was not the man to oe converted against his will, even by a charming woman whom he admired.

In her memoirs. Mme. Von Suttner

attributes to herself a power which she never possessed over Nobel. A pacifism he was. certainly, but the utopias ot Shelley and not the speeches of Bertha Von Suttner were the origin of the convictions w.hicb he never abandoned

When he consented to give 400 dollars towards her propaganda, he did so with the following words: “1 believe you are less in need of money than of a programme . . . My factories may render war impossible much quicker than your congresses. The day when two armies will be capable of destroying each other in a few seconds, all the nations wilJ recoil with horror and disband their armies.” Nobel expounded later to Baroness Von Suttner a plan containing the general principles which serve to-day as the basis of the League of Nations; but he did not advocate general disarmament which seemed to him dangerous.

A long time before his death, NobeJ decided to leave the power which his wealth represented to humanitarian institutions. To-day, in 1938. it is interesting to recall that he wrote these words to Mme. Von Suttner in 1893: “I should like to leave a part of my fortune tor the foundation of a prize to be distributed every five years, that is to say six times, because if by the end of thirty 5 ears we have not succeeded in reforming the present system, we shall surely have returned to barbarism.”

Alfred Nobel died in December, 1896. He is buried in Stockholm. His simple tomb is in the Northern Cemetery which resembles a vast and beautiful park.