Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, aspiring author and industrialist, invented what became one of the most destructive materials of the modern age — dynamite.

Birthplace Stockholm, Sweden
Born 21 October 1833
Died 10 December 1896
Invention Dynamite
Quote "If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied."

Born in Stockholm in 1833, Nobel grew up in St. Petersburg, spent most of his life in Paris and died in San Remo, Italy, at the age of 63.

He was introduced to the principles of science and engineering at an early age. His father manufactured powder-charged explosive mines and machinery in St. Petersburg during the Crimean War. His mother, Caroline, was a descendent of the Swedish naturalist Olof Rudbeck, noted for his discovery of the lymphatic system in 1651.

Educated by tutors, Nobel was fluent in five languages — English, French, German, Russian and Swedish. Inspired by the works of British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, French novelist Honore de Balzac, Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev and Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, he wrote a number of plays, novels and poems. Only one poem, however, was ever published.

Excelling in science, he spent a year in Paris studying chemistry and four years in the United States. He also worked in the laboratory of French chemist Theophile Jules Pelouze, regarded by some as the inventor of guncotton, and in his father's factory, manufacturing nitroglycerine.

Nobel was the owner of more than 350 patented inventions during his lifetime, including the blasting cap, blasting gelatin ("Nobel's Extra Dynamite"), and ballistite, one of the first nitroglycerine smokeless powders to be used as a substitute for black gunpowder.

Nobel's nitroglycerine was used by the Swedish State Railways and by the Central Pacific Railroad in the United States to blast through the Sierra Nevadas.

However, his greatest, and most destructive, scientific achievement was the invention of dynamite in 1866, which revolutionalized the mining industry. His creation, also known as "Nobel's safety blasting powder," was five times as powerful as gunpowder.

Nobel achieved lasting fame with this invention, which was patented in 1867 and used in the blasting of the Alpine Tunnel on the St. Gotthard rail line, the removal of underwater rocks from New York's East River, the clearing of the Danube River at the Iron Gate and the cutting of the Corinth Canal in Greece.

At the time of his death, more than 93 factories were producing 66 500 tons of explosives. His inventions in the field of explosives and revenues from companies he had founded generated a $5-million fortune.

But the "Lord of Dynamite" was a pacifist, and strongly opposed the military uses of his inventions. "For my part," he said three years before his death, "I wish all guns with their belongings and everything could be sent to hell, which is the proper place for their exhibition and use."

On Nov. 25, 1895, Nobel drew up his will, establishing the series of awards and leaving most of his estate in trust to establish prizes for individuals whose contributions inspired the world. "If only a few out of a hundred such ideas ever bear fruit," he said, "I consider I have gained a rich result."

On November 27, 1895, Nobel signed his final will and testament at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. He died of a heart attack in his home in San Remo, Italy on 10 December 1896.