Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an engineer and inventor. He built bridges and buildings in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. In connection with his construction work, Immanuel Nobel also experimented with different techniques of blasting rock.
Alfred’s mother, Andrietta Ahlsell, came from a wealthy family. Immanuel Nobel lost all his money. He was forced into bankruptcy the same year Alfred Nobel was born. In 1837, Immanuel Nobel left Stockholm and his family to start a new career in Finland and in Russia. To support the family, Andrietta Nobel started a grocery store which provided a little income.
At the same time Immanuel Nobel was successful in his new work in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started a mechanical workshop. He made equipments for the Russian army. He also convinced the generals that naval mines could be used to block enemy naval ships from threatening the city. The British ships could not come near the city of St. Petersburg. Immanuel Nobel was also a clever man. He made some arms and steam engines.
Successful in his industrial and business, Immanuel Nobel was able, in 1842, to bring his family to St. Petersburg. There, his sons were given a first class education by private teachers. The training included natural sciences, languages and literature. By the age of 17, Alfred Nobel was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German. His primary interests were in English literature and poetry as well as in chemistry and physics.
Alfred’s father, who wanted his sons to become engineers, disliked Alfred’s interest in poetry and found his son rather shy. His father sent him abroad for further training in chemical engineering. Alfred traveled to Italy, Germany and the U.S.
In Paris he met a young Italian chemist who had invented a highly explosive liquid. It was too dangerous to use. It had more power than gun powder. Alfred Nobel became very interested in it and wanted to use it in a different way. He wanted to use it in blasting rocks.
First he wanted to make it safe to use. He wanted to protect the lives of the people who would use it in the future.
In 1852 Alfred Nobel was asked to come back and work in the family business. At that time the Russian army wanted more deliveries. When the war ended and conditions changed, Immanuel Nobel lost all his money. Immanuel and two of his sons, Alfred and Emil, left St. Petersburg together and returned to Stockholm. His other two sons, Robert and Ludvig, remained in St. Petersburg. With some difficulties they managed to start the family business and then went on to work in the oil industry in the southern part of the Russian empire. They were very successful and became very rich.
After his return to Sweden in 1863, Alfred Nobel worked with explosives. He conducted several big explosions, including one in which his brother Emil and several other persons were killed in 1864. The government banned the use of explosives within the city of Stockholm because they were too dangerous. Alfred did his experiments far away from Stockholm. In 1864 he started producing explosives in larger amounts.
To make the use of his explosives safer, Alfred Nobel tried to add many things. He used something called silica. He could make a paste from the explosive liquid. This paste is what we now call dynamite. Workers could use this new invention safely to blast rocks. More and more companies wanted to buy dynamite to build roads and houses. It reduced the cost of hiring many people. Alfred Nobel was a very successful businessman. He had more than 90 factories in 20 different countries.
Although he lived in Paris much of his life, he was always traveling. He focused on the development of explosives technology as well as other chemical inventions, including such materials as synthetic rubber, leather and silk. By the time of his death in 1896 he had 355 new inventions.
Alfred Nobel had the mind of an inventor and the heart of a poet. He saw his invention used in killing people and destroying mankind. He was very sad to see that. He was interested in making peace. He offered to give a lot of money to help humans. In 1895 Nobel wrote his will, leaving most of his fortune to a foundation to promote work in Peace, Medicine, Biology and chemistry.
Some of these sentences are wrong
1. Alfred Nobel was born in Sydney, Australia.
2. Alfred Nobel had three other brothers.
3. Alfred Nobel was born in the year 1833.
4. His father worked in a grocery store.
5. His mother came from a rich family.
6. Immanuel Nobel lost all his sons and was forced into bankruptcy.
7. Alfred's mother had to go to Russia to work.
8. Alfred's father went to work in a city in Russia called St. Petersburg.
9. Alfred's father did not do well in Russia and lived as a poor man.
10. Alfred and his brothers got very good education in Russia.
11. Alfred was fluent in English, German and Chinese.
12. Alfred's father wanted his sons to work at Safeway.
13. Alfred travelled to Italy, France, Germany and the U.S when he was a young man.
14. Alfred met an Italian woman who had invented something very powerful.
15. After the war finished in Russia, Alfred's father made a lot of money.
16. Alfred went back to live in Stockholm with his father and three brothers.
17. Alfred's father died in a big explosion.
18. Alfred made the new invention safe to use when he added silica
19. Alfred Nobel was a scientist but he did not do well with money.
20. Alfred lived in Spain most of his life.
21. Alfred Nobel left all his money to promote work in making war.
22. 5 people from Egypt have won the Nobel Prize so far.
23. A lot of lessons can be learned from the life of this great man.
24. George Bush is the best man to get the Nobel Prize for peace in 2007.
25. The government banned the use of explosives inside the city of Stockholm because it was too dangerou
