Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, pm the 21st October 1833. He was a descendant of the seventeenth century scientist Olaus Rudbeck.
In 1842, he travelled to St Petersburg with his family, where his father, who had already invented modern plywood, established a torpedo factory. While in St. Petersburg the young Nobel studied Chemistry. He returned to his native Sweden when the family business was declared bankrupt, and he then devoted himself to studying explosives. In 1866, Alfred Nobel invented Dynamite, which was based on the explosive potential of nitro-glycerine; his invention was patented a year later.
Alfred Nobel brought the famous Swedish company Bofors in 1894, and turned it from being an iron and steel mill, into a major armaments manufacturer. He remained in control of the company right up until he died on 10th December 1896.
In 1895, just a year before he died, Nobel wrote his last will, in which he laid the foundations for the now famous Nobel Prizes. He left most of his enormous fortune to the establishment of the Prizes, which honour man and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for work in peace.
