He was born in a family of technicians. On October 21, 1833, a thin baby was born in this family. He was the later dynamite king Nobel. Nobel was frail and sickly since he was a child, but he was strong-willed and unwilling to lag behind. Nobel's father was very concerned about little Nobel's interests and hobbies. He often told him stories about scientists and encouraged him to grow up and become a useful person. Nobel's mother, Carol Lehmann, was a well-educated woman who was practical, optimistic, open-minded, modest and polite. She was both strict and loving towards her children, and often took Nobel to do some labor such as watering flowers, weeding, and removing garbage. In 1841, when Nobel was 8 years old, he finally reached the age of going to school. Nobel entered the local Yotai Primary School, which was the only school he received formal education in his life. Nobel's class attendance was at its lowest due to illness. But in school, he studied hard, so his grades were often among the best. At that time, Nobel's father had gone to work in neighboring Finland because of difficulties in making a living. He and his mother remain in Stockholm. Not long after, a naval mine invented by Nobel's father was known to the Russian minister. The minister visited his products and appreciated them very much. He warmly invited him to work in Russia and sent him to Petersburg (Leningrad). The mines he created were used by the Russian army to block the advance of the British fleet during the Crimean War in 1853. In 1842, Nobel's family moved to Petersburg, Russia. 9-year-old Nobel cannot enter the local school because he does not understand Russian and is in poor health. His father hired a tutor to tutor his three brothers in cultural studies. The teacher often conducted performance assessments and reported learning status to his father. Nobel made rapid progress. After studying, he likes to follow his father and do odd jobs in the factory. Nobel followed his father and watched his father design and develop mines, mine boats and explosives. In his young mind, the ideal of dedicating himself to science sprouted. His father also wanted him to learn mechanics and become a mechanic when he grew up. In 1850, the 17-year-old Nobel traveled across the ocean to the United States in the name of an engineer and interned in the factory of the famous Engineer Allison. After the internship ended, he visited European and American countries for four years before returning home. During the inspection, wherever he went, he immediately started working and gained an in-depth understanding of the industrial development of various countries. Nobel had been frail and sick since he was a child, and he was particularly diligent. In the summer of 1854, his illness became more and more serious. As a last resort, he had to put down his work for medical treatment. During the treatment, he wrote to his father and said: "I hope to end this nomadic life soon and start a new life with more activities. The current life is killing my time and is really annoying." There is no waiting for the disease. Completely fine, he devoted himself to work and study. Nobel's father moved back to Sweden in 1859. At that time, many countries urgently required the development of the mining industry and accelerated the speed of extraction. The inability of explosives to meet this need was a major problem that needed to be solved urgently. Nobel, who understood the industrial conditions of various countries, strengthened his determination to improve the production of explosives. At this time, an amazing news came: France invented explosives with excellent performance. In fact, this news is inaccurate. It turned out that when General Piggot, a famous French ordnance expert, was studying to improve the range and speed of bullets, he found that it was impossible to achieve better results with existing explosives, and the explosives must be improved. As a result, the Army Department organized its forces and began to study explosives. This incident prompted Nobel to go all out to study explosives. Nobel stayed in the laboratory all day long, looking up information, and doing various explosive tests again and again. His parents understood the dangers of working with explosives and were unhappy about his change of major. One day, his father said to him: "Son, your profession is to do machinery. You should concentrate on doing your job and not be distracted in other aspects." Nobel said: "It is very important to improve explosives. , once used in production, it will create great wealth for mankind. Of course, danger is inevitable, I just try to be careful." From then on, Nobel often explained the importance of improving explosives to relatives and friends. In this way, more and more people sympathized with and supported him. Even his parents who opposed him were moved by his strong will and had to acquiesce. 2. Research on explosives. Before Nobel, many people had researched and manufactured explosives. China’s black gunpowder had already spread to Europe. Nitroglycerin, invented by Italian Sublero in 1847, is a powerful explosive much more powerful than black powder.
However, this kind of explosive is particularly sensitive and easy to explode. It is dangerous to manufacture, store and transport, and people do not know how to use it. In early 1862, Nobel's brother tried to make a better explosive using nitroglycerin. He thought: Nitroglycerin is a liquid and difficult to control. If it is mixed with solid black gunpowder, it can be made into a good explosive. He tested repeatedly and found that the explosive power was greatly weakened after being left for a few hours, making it of no practical value. Old Nobel failed. Nobel continued his research. In the past, people used to light a fuse to cause black powder to explode, which was safe and reliable. However, this method cannot make nitroglycerin explode. Nitroglycerine is easy to explode on its own, but not easy to explode according to human requirements. Therefore, in the more than ten years after its invention, no one used it as an explosive except for the treatment of angina pectoris. In May and June of 1862, Nobel conducted a very important experiment: Fill a small glass tube with nitroglycerin, and plug the mouth of the tube tightly; then, put the glass tube into a slightly larger metal tube, and inside Fill it with black powder, insert a detonator, and plug the metal pipe mouth tightly; after lighting the detonator, throw the metal pipe into the ditch. As a result, a violent explosion occurred, apparently much more violent than the explosion of an equivalent amount of black powder. This indicates that all the nitroglycerine has completely exploded. This situation inspired Nobel to realize that in a sealed container, a small amount of black powder exploded first, which could cause the separated nitroglycerin to completely explode. In the autumn of 1863, Nobel and his brother established a laboratory in Helenpo, Stockholm, to engage in the manufacture and research of nitroglycerin. After many experiments, at the end of the year, Nobel finally invented an effective method to explode nitroglycerin. At first, Nobel used black powder as the detonator; later, he invented the detonator to detonate nitroglycerin. In 1864, he patented the invention. After the initial success, came huge setbacks. On September 3, 1864, an explosion occurred in the Helenpo Laboratory while manufacturing nitroglycerin, killing five people on the spot, including Nobel's brother. After this disaster happened, the surrounding residents were very panicked and strongly opposed Nobel's production of nitroglycerin there. As a result, Nobel had to move the equipment to Lake Maralen near Stockholm and make nitroglycerine on a boat. After many twists and turns, in March 1865, Nobel found a new factory site in Winterwegen and built the world's first nitroglycerin factory there. 3. The Dynamite Family The road ahead for Nobel was full of thorns. Countries around the world bought the nitroglycerin he made, and explosions often occurred: a train in the United States exploded into a pile of scrap metal due to an explosion of explosives; a factory in Germany exploded due to explosives, and the factory building and nearby houses were all turned into a piece of debris. Ruins; the "Europa" seagoing ship encountered strong winds and bumps in the Atlantic Ocean, causing the nitroglycerine to explode and the ship sank, killing everyone. These tragic accidents caused countries around the world to lose confidence in nitroglycerine, and some countries even ordered a ban on the manufacture, storage, and transportation of nitroglycerin. Faced with this difficult situation, Nobel did not lose heart. He firmly believed that it was entirely possible to solve the problem of nitroglycerin instability. A year has passed. Nobel discovered through repeated experiments that using some porous charcoal powder, sawdust, diatomaceous earth, etc. to absorb nitroglycerin can reduce the risk of explosion. Finally, he used one part heavy diatomaceous earth to absorb three parts heavy nitroglycerin, and for the first time made a nitroglycerin industrial explosive that was safe to transport and use. This is the Nobel safety explosive. In order to eliminate people's doubts and fears about nitroglycerin dynamite, Nobel conducted a comparative experiment in a British mine on July 14, 1867: He first placed a box of safety explosives on a pile of firewood and ignited the firewood. , this box of explosives did not explode; he threw another box of safety explosives from a cliff about 20 meters high, and as a result, this box of explosives did not explode either; then, he loaded safety explosives into stone caves, iron barrels and drilled holes. The explosives were detonated with detonators, and they all exploded. This experiment was a complete success and left a deep impression on the visitors; Nobel's safety explosives are indeed safe. Soon, Nobel established the Security Explosives Trust to market this explosive to the world. Since then, people have ended the era of handicraft workshops producing black powder and entered the stage of large-scale industrial production of safety explosives. In 1873, Nobel's Security Explosives Trust established a head office in Paris, with a laboratory attached.
He did many experiments here to improve the method of making explosives. Nobel's safety explosive was much more powerful than black powder and was safe and reliable, so sales skyrocketed and became popular all over the world. In 1867, 11 tons were sold, and by 1874, 3,000 tons were sold. Safety explosives also have drawbacks. One of the disadvantages is that the explosive power is not as strong as pure nitroglycerine. It is for this reason that some places still risk using nitroglycerine as explosives. How to find a new explosive that has the explosive power of nitroglycerin and the safety performance of safe explosives has become the goal that many inventors are striving for. This time, it was Nobel who succeeded first. One day, while Nobel was working in the laboratory, his finger was cut, and he used nitrocellulose with a relatively low nitrogen content to cover the wound. That night, unable to sleep because of the pain of the wound, he lay in bed and pondered the main problem in his work: how to mix nitrocellulose with nitroglycerin. Nitrocellulose is made by the interaction of cellulose with a mixed acid of nitric acid and sulfuric acid. It is something that can easily catch fire. Because the mixing ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid is different, and the length of action is different, the nitrogen content of the generated nitrocellulose may be high or low. Nobel had long wanted to mix nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose to make explosives, but he had been unable to succeed. Now, Nobel was inspired by the fact that dressings can absorb blood, and suddenly thought of whether he could use nitrocellulose with a lower nitrogen content to mix with nitroglycerin? He jumped up, forgetting the pain in his fingers, ran to the laboratory, and started doing experiments alone. He dissolved about one part of guncotton in nine parts of nitroglycerine to obtain a highly explosive gelatin - fried glue. The next day, when Nobel's assistant Wallenbach went to work, a new type of explosive-explosion glue had been made. Wallenbach was surprised and delighted, and admired his intoxicating energy. After years of testing, in 1887, Nobel added a small amount of camphor to nitroglycerin and collodion to create smokeless gunpowder. Gunpowder commonly used in the military industry to this day belongs to this type. Smokeless gunpowder is much more explosive than black gunpowder, and it burns fully with very little smoke when it explodes, so people call it smokeless gunpowder. To make explosives, firstly, they must have strong explosive power, secondly, they must be safe and reliable, and thirdly, they must explode at any time according to human requirements. Nobel made safe explosives, smokeless gunpowder, and detonators for detonation, which solved these three major problems very well. People call Nobel the King of Explosives, and he is well deserved. Nobel studied explosives and always focused on applying research results to production. He believes that only inventions that achieve practical results in production are useful. Therefore, his invention can be quickly applied in production and obtain real economic benefits immediately. In 1863, Nobel invented the nitroglycerin detonator. In the fall of that year, he began to manufacture nitroglycerin and detonating agents in his home laboratory; in 1865, the first nitroglycerin factory was built just outside Stockholm. In 1866, Nobel made a safe explosive and put it into production the next year. Three years later, the annual sales volume increased from 11 tons to 424 tons, and seven years later, it surged to 3,120 tons. Nobel set a precedent for the rapid application of scientific research results to production. 4. Erudite and versatile. Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was a versatile person with rich knowledge and wide interests. He has a good understanding of electricity, optics, mechanics, biology, and physiology, and often thinks about linking his research with other disciplines. He said: "Various sciences are intrinsically related to each other. In order to solve problems in a certain scientific field, we should rely on other related scientific knowledge." Nobel obtained various patent rights throughout his life. 355 items. In his later years, he experimented with rayon and artificial rubber. Although he was unsuccessful, it was of great help to subsequent inventions. When it comes to Nobel, people praise him as a great inventor. Few people know that he was also a poet and literary lover. He likes to read various literary classics in Swedish, English, French, German and Russian. He particularly liked the poems of the British poet Shelley. In a lyric poem he wrote, there was such a sentence: "I only know how to concentrate on reading, exploring nature, and absorbing the profound and vast spring of knowledge." He also wrote "Brothers and Sisters", "The Happiest" Africa" ??and other novels,. Died on December 10, 1896.