Background: Nobel's father moved back to Sweden in 1859. At that time, many countries urgently demanded to develop mining industry and speed up mining. Explosives can't meet this need, which is a big problem to be solved urgently. Nobel, who knows the industrial situation of various countries, has strengthened his determination to increase the output of explosives. At this time, an amazing news came: France invented explosives with excellent performance. In fact, the news is inaccurate. It turned out that General Piguet, a famous French ordnance expert, found that there could be no better result with the existing explosives when studying how to improve the range and speed of bullets, and he had to improve the explosives. So, the war department organized forces and began to study explosives. This incident prompted Nobel to devote himself to the study of explosives.
Nobel was locked in the laboratory all day, looking up information and doing various explosion experiments again and again. His parents understand the danger of engaging in explosives and are very unhappy about his changing his major. One day, his father said to him, "Son, your job is mechanical, so you should concentrate on your work, and you'd better not be distracted in other ways." 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 will try to be careful. " Since then, Nobel has often publicized and explained the significance of improving explosives to relatives and friends. In this way, more and more people sympathized with him and sponsored him. Even his parents who opposed him were moved by his strong will and had to acquiesce.
Before the Nobel Prize, many people studied and made explosives, and China's black powder had already spread to Europe. Nitroglycerin was invented by Italian Subero in 1847, and it is a kind of high explosive which is much more powerful than black powder. However, this kind of explosive is particularly sensitive, easy to explode and dangerous to manufacture, store and transport. People don't know how to use it.
1at the beginning of 862, Nobel's brother tried to make better explosives with nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin, he thought, is a liquid and difficult to control. If mixed with solid black powder, it can be made into a good explosive. After repeated experiments, he found that the power of explosives was greatly weakened after being left for several hours, and it was of no practical value. Old Nobel failed. Nobel continued his research. In the past, people used to ignite the fuse to trigger the explosion of black powder, which was safe and reliable. However, this method cannot make nitroglycerin explode. Nitroglycerin is not only easy to explode by itself, but also difficult to explode according to human requirements. Therefore, in the ten years after its invention, it was not used as an explosive except for treating angina pectoris. 1862 In May and June, Nobel made a very important experiment: put nitroglycerin in a small glass tube and plug the nozzle; Then, put this glass tube into a slightly larger metal tube filled with black powder, plug in the fire tube and plug the metal nozzle tightly; After lighting the fire tube, throw the metal tube into the ditch. As a result, there was a violent explosion, which was obviously much more violent than the explosion of the same amount of black powder. This shows that all nitroglycerin has completely exploded. This situation inspired Nobel to realize that in a sealed container, a small amount of black powder exploded first, which could completely explode the separated nitroglycerin.
1In the autumn of 863, Nobel and his younger brother set up a laboratory in Helenpo, Stockholm, engaged in the manufacture and research of nitroglycerin. After many experiments, at the end of this year, Nobel finally invented an effective method to make nitroglycerin explode. At first, Nobel used black powder as detonator; Later, he invented a detonator to detonate nitroglycerin. In 1864, he obtained a patent for this invention. After the initial success, great setbacks followed. 1On September 3rd, 864, an explosion occurred in Helenpo laboratory while making nitroglycerin, killing five people on the spot, including Nobel's younger brother. After the disaster, the surrounding residents were very frightened and strongly opposed to Nobel's production of nitroglycerin there. As a result, Nobel had to transfer the equipment to Lake Malaren near Stockholm to make nitroglycerin on board. After many twists and turns, in March of 1865, Nobel found a new site in Winterwigan, where he built the world's first nitroglycerin factory.
The explosion family is really full of thorns on the road of Nobel's progress. All countries in the world buy nitroglycerin made by him, which often explodes: an American train is blown into a pile of scrap iron because of explosive explosion; A factory in Germany, due to the explosion of explosives, the factory building and nearby houses were all in ruins; The seagoing ship "Europa" was bumped by strong winds in the Atlantic Ocean, causing nitroglycerin to explode and sink. These tragic accidents have made countries around the world lose confidence in nitroglycerin, and some countries even banned the manufacture, storage and transportation of nitroglycerin. In the face of this difficult situation, Nobel did not lose heart. He is convinced that it is entirely possible to solve the problem of unstable nitroglycerin. A year has passed. Nobel found in repeated experiments that the danger of explosion can be reduced by adsorbing nitroglycerin with some porous charcoal powder, sawdust and diatomite. Finally, he used a heavy diatomite to adsorb three nitroglycerin, and made nitroglycerin industrial explosive which was safe to transport and use for the first time. This is a Nobel safe explosive.
In order to dispel people's doubts and fears about nitroglycerin explosives,1On July 4, 867, Nobel made a comparative experiment in a mine in England: he first put a box of safe explosives on a pile of firewood and lit it. As a result, the box of explosives did not explode; He dropped another box of safety explosives from a cliff about 20 meters high. As a result, this box of explosives did not explode. Then, he placed safety explosives in caves, iron drums and boreholes and detonated them with detonators. And it all exploded. The experiment was a complete success and left a deep impression on the visitors. Nobel's safety explosives are really safe. Soon, Nobel established the Safe Explosives Trust Company to sell this kind of explosives to the whole world. Since then, people have ended the era of producing black powder in manual workshops and entered the stage of large-scale industrial production of safe explosives.
1873, the Nobel Trust Fund for Safe Explosives has set up a general office in Paris with a laboratory. He did many experiments here to improve the manufacturing method of explosives. Nobel's safety explosives are much more powerful than black powder, and they are safe and reliable, so the sales volume has soared and gradually swept the world. 1867 sold 1 1 ton, 1874 sold 3000 tons. Safety explosives also have disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that the explosive force is not as great as that of pure nitroglycerin. It is for this reason that nitroglycerin is still used as an explosive in some places. How to find a new explosive with both the explosive power of nitroglycerin and the safety performance of safe explosives has become the goal that many inventors have been trying to find for some time. This time, it was Nobel who succeeded first. One day, while working in the laboratory, Nobel cut his finger and put a nitrocellulose with low nitrogen content on the wound. That night, he couldn't sleep because of the pain in the wound. He lay in bed thinking about the main problem in his work: how to mix nitrocellulose with nitroglycerin. Nitrocellulose is made by the interaction between cellulose and mixed acid of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, and it is a kind of thing that is easy to catch fire. Because of the different mixing ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid and different action time, the nitrogen content of nitrocellulose produced is high or low. Nobel has long wanted to mix nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose to make explosives, but it has not been successful. Inspired by the fact that dressings can absorb blood, Nobel suddenly thought of whether nitrocellulose with low nitrogen content can be mixed with nitroglycerin. He got up, forgot the pain in his fingers, ran to the laboratory and started the experiment alone. He dissolved about one part of collodion in nine parts of nitroglycerin and got a kind of explosive glue-fried glue. The next day, when Nobel's assistant Warren Bach went to work, a new type of explosive glue had been made. Wallenbach was pleasantly surprised, and he admired his ecstasy. After years of experiments, 1887, Nobel added a small amount of camphor to nitroglycerin and collodion, and invented smokeless gunpowder. Until today, gunpowder widely used in military industry belongs to this type. Smokeless powder is much more explosive than black powder, and it burns fully and has little smoke, so people call it smokeless powder. To make explosives, it is necessary to have powerful explosive power, be safe and reliable, and be able to explode at any time according to people's requirements. Nobel made safe explosives, smokeless powder and detonators, which solved these three problems well. People call Nobel the king of explosives, and he deserves it. Nobel studied explosives and always attached importance to applying the research results to production. He believes that only inventions that achieve practical results in production are useful. Therefore, his invention can be applied to production quickly and get real economic benefits immediately. 1863, Nobel invented nitroglycerin detonator. That autumn, he began to make nitroglycerin and detonators in his laboratory. 1865, just outside Stockholm, the first nitroglycerin factory was built. 1866, Nobel made a safe explosive and put it into production the next year. After three years, the annual sales increased from 1 1 ton to 424 tons, and after seven years, it surged to 3 120 tons. Nobel pioneered the rapid application of scientific research results to production. Nobel, a versatile inventor of explosives, is a versatile with rich knowledge and wide interests. He is quite familiar with electricity, optics, mechanics, biology and physiology, and often associates his research with other disciplines. He said: "All kinds of sciences are interrelated in essence. In order to solve problems in a certain scientific field, we should rely on other relevant scientific knowledge. " Nobel won 355 patents in his life. In his later years, he experimented with rayon and rubber. Although it didn't succeed, it was of great help to his later inventions. Speaking of Nobel, people praised him as a great inventor. Few people know that he is also a poet and a literary lover. He likes reading various literary masterpieces from Sweden, Britain, France, Germany and Russia. He especially likes the poems of the English poet Shelley. In a lyric poem he wrote, there is such a sentence: "I only know how to concentrate on reading and exploring nature, and draw knowledge from a vast and profound treasure house of knowledge." He also wrote novels such as Brothers and Sisters and The Happiest Africa.1896 65438+February 10 died.