Why Did Alfred Nobel Create the Nobel Prize? The Dynamite Inventor's Surprising Will

Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), the Swedish chemist and industrialist who patented dynamite in 1867, signed a will in November 1895 leaving about 94% of his fortune to fund annual prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Nobody knows exactly why he chose to do it. A famous story says that a newspaper mistakenly published his obituary under the headline "the merchant of death", and that the shock made him rethink his legacy, but historians have not been able to verify it, and some consider it a myth. What we do know is more interesting than the legend: a lonely, multilingual inventor who made a fortune from explosives and decided to reward the people who benefit humanity most.

A childhood between Sweden and Russia

Nobel was born in Stockholm on 21 October 1833, the third son of the engineer and inventor Immanuel Nobel. His father's business struggles took the family to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where Immanuel made naval mines and machinery for the Russian state.

Alfred never went to university. Instead he was educated by private tutors, and he became fluent in several languages. That international upbringing shaped his whole life: he worked across Europe, wrote letters in several languages and was famously described as a citizen of nowhere in particular.

Taming nitroglycerin

In the mid-nineteenth century, nitroglycerin was a powerful new explosive, but it was dangerously unstable: a small shock could set it off. Nobel set out to make it usable. The work was deadly. In 1864 an explosion at the family factory killed his younger brother Emil, and Nobel continued his experiments at a more isolated site.

His breakthrough was to make nitroglycerin safer to handle by combining it with a stable absorbent material. The result, which he patented in 1867, was dynamite. Dynamite transformed mining, tunnelling, railway building and construction. It also, inevitably, found military uses.

He kept inventing. He later developed gelignite (1875) and ballistite (1887), and over his life he held 355 patents.

Business empire

Nobel was as much an industrialist as an inventor. He built factories and companies in many countries and ran family enterprises including the arms manufacturer Bofors. His brothers founded the oil company Branobel in Baku, which added to the family's enormous wealth.

He lived much of his life in Paris and later in Sanremo, Italy, travelling constantly between factories. He never married. His longest relationship was with a young woman named Sofie Hess, and his surviving letters to her contain remarks that critics today point to as antisemitic and chauvinistic, part of a more complicated picture of the man behind the prize.

The "merchant of death" story

The most famous explanation for the Nobel Prize goes like this: in 1888 Alfred's brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper confused the two brothers and published an obituary of Alfred calling him "the merchant of death", and Alfred, horrified to read how he would be remembered, decided to change his legacy.

It is a powerful story, which is why it is repeated so often. But historians have not verified it, and some regard it as a myth. It may be better to treat it as a parable than as a fact.

The will of 1895

On 27 November 1895, a little over a year before his death, Nobel signed his final will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. He left about 94% of his assets to establish the prizes. The will said the money should reward those who, during the preceding year, had conferred the greatest benefit on humankind, in five fields: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.

His relatives were not pleased, and setting up the foundation took years of legal work. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. (The prize in economics was added much later, funded by Sweden's central bank, and is technically a separate award in Nobel's memory.)

Nobel died in Sanremo on 10 December 1896. The prizes are still presented every year on that date, the anniversary of his death.

Why a peace prize?

It may seem odd that a man who made explosives and owned an arms company created a peace prize. Nobel's own views on war were complicated. He sometimes argued that weapons so terrible that war became unthinkable might keep the peace. Whatever his reasoning, the peace prize became one of the best-known awards in the world.

Today the element nobelium carries his name too. But for most people, "Nobel" now means not dynamite, but the highest recognition a scientist, writer or peacemaker can receive.

Learn with Alfred Nobel: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to leave a legacy	to be remembered for something after you die	She wanted to leave a legacy of kindness.
to make a fortune	to earn a very large amount of money	He made a fortune in the oil business.
to have a change of heart	to change your opinion or plans	After the trip, I had a change of heart.
a double-edged sword	something with both good and bad effects	Social media is a double-edged sword.
for the benefit of	in order to help	The library was built for the benefit of everyone.

Try this: Imagine writing your own "will" for your language learning. In three English sentences, say what habit you want to leave as a legacy, using "leave a legacy" and "for the benefit of".