This Day in History: 25 November 2019
25 November 1867
152 years ago, today, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel first patented dynamite, the fifth of Nobel's 355 patents and his most famous. Nobel began as a student of chemistry and progressively became interested in searching for an alternative to nitro-glycerine, a highly unstable explosive, while working in his father's explosive factory. He worked hard to improve this and made dynamite from mixing this unstable explosive with kieselguhr, a rock that can be crumbled into a find powder. He found this could be shaped into a paste and could be kneaded and shaped for all kinds of insertion. This was called 'dynamite'.
Nobel then started to invent other explosives, such as gelignite in 1875, which was more stable than dynamite. In 1895, in his will after his death, Nobel established the 'prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind', the Nobel Prize, with his remaining fortune. The first of these prizes were awarded in 1901, where the Peace Prize was shared between Frédéric Passy, for his role in founding the first French peace society, and Jean Henry Dunant, for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention.
Want to find out more about Nobel's invention of dynamite? Visit https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-dynamite-1991564 for more details and more information on Nobel's life.
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