Ten fun facts about Alfred Nobel
Fact 1
He was the inventor of dynamite.
Fact 2
Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments.
Fact 3
Nobel held 350 different patents, dynamite being the most famous.
Fact 4
Despite the lack of formal secondary and tertiary level education, Nobel gained proficiency in six languages: Swedish, French, Russian, English, German and Italian.
Fact 5
He also developed sufficient literary skill to write poetry in English.
Fact 6
On 27 November 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 Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality.
Fact 7
His fortune was used posthumously to institute the Nobel Prizes.
Fact 8
The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.
Fact 9
His name also survives in modern-day companies such as Dynamit Nobel and AkzoNobel, which are descendants of or mergers with companies Nobel himself established.
Fact 10
Nobel was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884, the same institution that would later select laureates for two of the Nobel prizes.
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