Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor, chemist, engineer and armaments manufacturer. The two most commonly known facts about him are that he invented dynamite and that he instituted the Nobel Prizes; there is a link between the two. Nobel worked in his family’s factory and devoted himself to the safer manufacture of nitroglycerin. In 1864, an explosion in a shed used for preparing nitroglycerin killed five people, including Nobel’s younger brother Emil. Alfred worked to improve the stability of explosives and in 1867 invented dynamite, which was safer and easier to handle than nitroglycerin. He later went on to improve on dynamite by developing gelignite.
A journalistic error is said to have contributed towards the creation of the Nobel Prizes. Alfred’s brother, Ludvig, died
