Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel was spurred by his obituary to create the Nobel Prize

INVENTOR Alfred Nobel is said to have read his own obituary, which spurred him to create the Nobel prize

Undated photo of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Peace Prize.

MOST of us never get to read our obituary, but there have been some notable cases where the news of someone’s demise was prematurely published in newspapers. Writer Mark Twain famously quipped that news of his death had been “greatly exaggerated” and showman Phineas Barnum asked for a paper to print his obituary before he died so he could see what people thought of him.

There is at least one case where a premature obituary is said have been a force for good. Legend has it that when wealthy Swedish-Russian oil magnate Ludvig Nobel died during a visit to Cannes, France, on April 12, 1888, 130 years ago today, a newspaper reporter got wind of the death and printed an obituary. Unfortunately the journalist got the name wrong and wrote about Ludvig’s brother Alfred, the inventor of dynamite. But the legend suggests that the obituary was scathing, calling Alfred Nobel a “merchant of death” and an inventor of a way of killing people faster than ever before.

When Alfred read the obituary he was said to have been horrified that this was how he would be remembered. It became a major factor in him leaving his fortune to be used to implement the Nobel prizes for “outstanding contributions for humanity” in various fields, to encourage less destructive human endeavours.

A portrait of Alfred Nobel, from the 1880s, by Swedish photographer Gösta Florman.

The trouble is that nobody has been able to find the original obituary, and some sources claim that the newspaper, L’Idiotie Quotidienne, which ran the story, has no trace in their historical records. It is possible that, after hearing of his brother’s death and the good things said about Ludvig, Alfred may have begun to think about giving prizes for conferring some kind of benefit on mankind. But it was not until 1895, a year before his death, that he changed his will to dedicate most of his fortune to the prizes.

Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 21, 1833, the third son of inventor and engineer Immanuel Nobel. Immanuel moved the family to Russia in 1837 where he had a successful business — manufacturing (among other things) explosive mines.

Alfred had a great intellectual curiosity and became fluent in many languages. He studied chemistry in Paris and later joined his father’s workshop, manufacturing armaments for the Crimean War. When the war ended, the company had difficulty readjusting to domestic production and went bankrupt. Most of the Nobel family moved back to Sweden but Ludvig was left in charge of the factory, and helped steer it back into the black.

Meanwhile in Sweden, Alfred began experimenting with explosives. He set up a factory manufacturing nitroglycerine in 1862. He invented the detonator and the blasting cap, doing away with the dangerous use of lit fuses. In 1864 his factory was destroyed by an explosion that killed several people, including his younger brother Emil.

It spurred him on to find a safer alternative to nitroglycerine. In 1867 he invented a new form of explosive that he named dynamite, which was less unstable and easier to handle than nitro. Among its many applications was blasting through rock to speed up construction of railways and roads across mountains. Nobel, who despised war, knew that it had other uses but was hopeful it might even end war. He said: “My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.”

But it didn’t, and Nobel gained a reputation for being the creator of a destructive invention. However, it made him very wealthy.

Ludvig Immanuel Nobel, oil tycoon, philanthropist and brother of dynamite inventor Alfred, circa 1880.

Back in Russia, in 1873 Alfred’s brothers Ludvig and Robert Nobel had bought a small oil refinery in Baku, Azerbaijan. By 1880 they had become wealthy from refining oil, founding the company Branobel. Ludvig is credited with inventing the oil tanker and many other aspects of modern oil production.

Although the business made him wealthy, Ludvig believed in sharing his success with his employees, improving conditions in factories for his workers and even profit-sharing. He also made donations to create parks, schools and hospitals. When he died in 1888 he was remembered as a great humanitarian as well as a fair and canny businessman.

But Alfred was known as a workaholic and a loner. In 1876 he posted an advertisement saying, “Wealthy, highly educated elderly gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary and supervisor of household”.

Countess Bertha Kinsky answered the ad and worked for Nobel for a time, but later left his employ to marry. Nobel and the countess remained friends, she became a peace activist who may also have exerted some influence over his prizes, but he never married.

In November 1895, with most of his siblings dead, no heirs to his fortune and aware of his legacy, he sat at a desk in a Swedish-Norwegian club and wrote his last will and testament, creating the Nobel prize for “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

He died in December 1896 and the prizes were first awarded in 1901.