Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and the blasting cap. These inventions opened up previously undreamed of possibilities in the mining industry. By the end of the 19th century, prospectors and miners were using Alfred Nobel’s inventions to open thousands of new mines. Today, Alfred Nobel is known throughout the world as the founder and benefactor of the Nobel Prizes.
Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden but grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia. There, his father, a successful inventor of military explosive mines, introduced him to explosives. At the age of 17, Alfred was sent to Paris for further education and became acquainted with the discovery of nitroglycerine by his fellow student, Ascanio Sobrero.
Returning to Russia, Alfred Nobel further developed nitroglycerine and invented the blasting cap as a safe means of initiating this powerful explosive. In 1864, he returned to Sweden and secured a patent for a method of blasting rock using nitroglycerine and blasting caps. Alfred, his father, and his brother, Emil, began manufacturing nitroglycerine. On September 3, 1864, an explosion leveled their laboratory and killed Emil Nobel and four other workers.
Undaunted by this tragedy, Alfred formed a new company to manufacture nitroglycerine for use in driving a vital railroad tunnel through the tough granite of downtown Stockholm. During the next two years, he formed companies, secured patents and built manufacturing plants in Norway, Germany, and America. However, a series of accidental blasts turned the public and government officials against the dangerous liquid explosive.
During this time, Alfred Nobel developed his most important invention—dynamite—which is made by absorbing volatile liquid nitroglycerine into inert kieselguhr. In 1867, he patented and began commercial production of dynamite. Tunneling, underwater blasting, and the construction of deep canals that had previously been almost impossible could now be carried out with relative ease.
In 1875, Alfred Nobel invented Extra Dynamite, a blasting gelatin. It was an immediate success and completely replaced nitroglycerine for shattering hard rock in the most difficult mining conditions.
In the 1880s, Alfred Nobel invented Ballistite, a double-based, smokeless powder. This invention deeply involved him in the European arms race of the 1880s and 1890s. Ultimately, personal remorse over the military use of his inventions resulted in Alfred Nobel writing a will that directed almost all of his vast personal fortune toward the establishment of Nobel Prizes in Peace, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature.
During his lifetime, Alfred Nobel held 355 patents for explosives and mining methods. Today, Alfred Nobel’s original companies in Norway and Sweden are combined into Dyno Nobel, one of the foremost suppliers of mining explosives throughout the world. In North America, Dyno Nobel operates the only remaining dynamite plant.
