Nobel, Immanuel

Newlands, John, 62 Newton, Isaac, 6,25, 71, 72 Nicholson, WiUiam, 176 Nieuwland, JuUus, 300 Nobel, Alfred, 293 Nobel, Immanuel, 293... 

Gunpowder was the primary explosive used for almost one thousand years. In 1846, the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) first prepared nitroglycerin, but it was twenty years before Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) developed its use commercially. Nobel was bom in Stockholm, Sweden, where his father, Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872), ran a heavy constmction company. When Alfred was four, his father s company went bankrupt and Immanuel left for St. Petersburg, Russia, to start over. Immanuel rebuilt a successful business in Russia, in part due to his ability to develop and sell mines to the Russian Navy for use in the Crimean War. Alfred and the rest of his family joined his father in Russia when he was nine, and Alfred received an excellent education with private tutors. He studied in the United States and Paris where he met Sobrero. Nobel studied... 

The limitations of black powder as a blasting explosive were apparent for difficult mining and tunneling operations. More efficient explosives were required. Liquid nitroglycerine [C3H503(N02)s], 1, that was discovered by the Italian Professor Sobrero, was later studied and manufactured by the Swedish inventor, Immanuel Nobel in 1863. The major problem that the Nobel family faced was the transportation of liquid nitroglycerine that causes loss of life and property. The destruction of the Nobel factory in 1864 was one of many accidents caused by the explosion of nitroglycerine. 

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was bom in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 21, 1833, as the third of four sons to Immanuel and Andriette (Tyilsell) Nobel. That same year, his father, an engineer and builder, went bankmpt when barges full of building materials were lost at sea. In 1837 Immanuel left Stockholm and moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he started manufacturing equipment for the Russian army. His factory flourished, especially with the manufacture and sale of naval mines of his own constmction. 

Immanuel was eventually able to bring his family to Russia, where his sons were given a private education. Alfred Nobel s interests ranged from literature and poetry to physics and chemistry. Nobel s command of foreign languages was excellent by the age of seventeen he was fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English, and German, which aided him in his future business transactions. 

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