Portrait of Alfred Nobel

People/scientist, financier

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), scientist, financier, from Sweden. Linked to diatomite.

The lucky break

Found in 1867 that kieselguhr stabilised nitroglycerin, and named the mixture dynamite. He had 355 patents.1,2

Legacy

Dynamite and blasting gelatine made large-scale mining and tunnelling cheaper. His will created the Nobel Prizes.1,2

Story cards

Sources

  1. Alfred Nobel: biography and timeline Nobel Foundation
  2. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons

Pictures on this page: AlfredNobel2.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Dolcoath tin mine, Camborne, Cornwall: miners in a mine shaft, standing on wooden platforms connected by ladders. Photograph by J. C. Burrow, 1890/1910., Burrow, J. C., 1852-1914 (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).