Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel {{Audio|sv-Alfred_Nobel.ogg|listen}} (October 21, 1833, Stockholm, Sweden – December 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy) was a Swedish chemist, engineer and the inventor of dynamite. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element Nobelium was named after him.

The Prizes

The erroneous publication in 1888 of a premature obituary of Nobel by a French newspaper, condemning his invention of dynamite, is said to have made him decide to leave a better legacy to the world after his death.

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1888 - Premature obituary

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So on November 27, 1895 at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death (to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality). He died of a stroke on December 10, 1896 at San Remo, Italy. The amount set aside for the Nobel Prize foundation was 31 million kronor.

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November 27 - 1895 - Paris - Nobel Prize - Stroke - December 10 - 1896 - San Remo - Italy

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The first three of these prizes are for eminence in physical science, in chemistry and in medical science or physiology; the fourth is for the most remarkable literary work "in an ideal direction" and the fifth is to be given to the person or society that renders the greatest service to the cause of international brother/sisterhood, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses.

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Physical science - Chemistry - Medical science or physiology - Literary work - The fifth - Peace

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The formulation about the literary prize, "in an ideal direction" (Swedish i idealisk riktning), is cryptic and has caused much consternation. For many years, the Swedish Academy interpreted "ideal" as "idealistic" (in Swedish idealistisk), and used it as a pretext to not give the prize to important but less romantic authors, such as Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and Leo Tolstoy. This interpretation has been revised, and the prize given also to, for example, Dario Fo and José Saramago, who definitely do not belong to the camp of literary idealism.

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Romantic - Henrik Ibsen - August Strindberg - Leo Tolstoy - Dario Fo - José Saramago

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Nowadays, when it is possible to read the Swedish original of Nemesis and take a look at his own philosophical and literary standpoint, it seems possible that his intention might have been rather the opposite than first believed - that the prize should be given to authors who fight for their ideals against such authorities as God, Church, and State.

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There was also quite a lot of room for interpretation by the bodies he had named for deciding on the physical sciences and chemistry prizes, given that he had not consulted them before making the will. In this short one page testament he stipulated that the money should go to discoveries or inventions in the physical sciences and to discoveries or improvements in chemistry. He had opened the door to technological awards, but he had not left instructions on how to do the split between science and technology. Since the deciding bodies he had chosen in these domains were more concerned with Science than technology it is not surprising that the prizes went to scientists and not to engineers, technicians or other inventors. In a sense the technological prizes announced recently by the World Technology Network are an indirect (and thus not funded by the Nobel foundation) continuation of the wishes of Alfred Nobel, as he set them out in his testament.

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Recently, a controversy has arisen over whether the economics award should also be called a "Nobel Prize" (see Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel).

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