Alfred Nobel's Last Will Releases A Heavy Life

Alfred Nobel (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - On October 21, 1833, a family in Stockholm, Sweden welcomed the birth of a baby boy. Unexpectedly, the boy grew up to be a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, and originator of the Nobel Prize that is famous throughout the world. The child's parents are Immanuel Nobel and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. The two of them named their son Alfred.

Citing the official Nobel Prize website, Alfred himself is no stranger to things related to discoveries. Alfred's father was an engineer and inventor. He built bridges and buildings and experimented with various ways to blow up rocks.

In the same year that Alfred was born, his father's business lost money and had to close. In 1837, Immanuel Nobel decided to try business elsewhere. He left for Finland and Russia. Alfred's mother was left in Stockholm to take care of the family. At that time Alfred had two older brothers, Robert, who was born in 1829, and Ludvig who was born in 1831.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Alfred started to open a grocery store for the economic needs of her family. The shop raised a modest income but was sufficient to support the family life.

The good news is that after a while, Immanuel's business in Russia is starting to go well. He opened a mechanical workshop that provided equipment for the Russian army. He also made various military requirements to stop enemy ships from entering and attacking St. Petersburg. Petersburg, Russia.

Alfred's father managed to mine a mine that stopped the movement of the British Royal Navy into the St. Petersburg firing range during the Crimean War in 1853-1856. After success, Alfred's father then brought his family in Sweden to Russia.

Return to Sweden

However, after the Crimean War ended, Alfred's father's business deteriorated. He decided to return home to Sweden. Alfred's older brothers Robert and Ludvig live in Russia, trying to save the remaining family business. They were successful and continued to develop the oil industry in southern Russia.

After the Nobel family returned to Sweden in 1863, Alfred concentrated on developing nitroglycerin as an explosive. Unfortunately, this experiment resulted in an accident that killed several people, including Alfred's younger brother, Emil. The government decided to ban the experiment.

Alfred did not give up and moved his experiments to a barge or flatbed boat on Lake Mälaren. In 1864, he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerin but he did not stop experimenting with different additives to make production safer. After several experiments, finally Alfred managed to find dynamite.

Dynamite and explosive caps are in great demand in the construction industry. Because of that, Alfred was able to set up factories in 90 different places. He lives in Paris but often travels to his factories in more than 20 countries.

During life, Alfred did not have his own family. Before he died, Alfred exchanged letters with his former secretary in Austria. Alfred Nobel later wrote a will regarding the Nobel Prize, in which he wanted to give awards to people or organizations who wanted peace.

Alfred died in San Remo, Italy on December 10, 1896. In his last testament, he wrote that most of his wealth was used to reward those who have done the best for humanity in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.

Not everyone is happy about this. Her wishes were opposed by her relatives and questioned by authorities in various countries. It took four years for the executor to convince all parties to follow Alfred's wishes.

In 1901, the first Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature was first awarded in Stockholm, Sweden and the Peace Prize was awarded in Kristiania - now Oslo, Norway.