Boigra

Born in Stockholm, Alfred Nobel was the fourth son of Immanuel Nobel (1801–1872), an inventor and engineer, and Andriette Ahlsell Nobel (1805–1889).[1] The couple married in 1827 and had eightchildren, although, beset by poverty, only Alfred and his three brothers survived past childhood. [1][2]Through his father, Alfred Nobel was a descendant of the Swedish scientist OlausRudbeck (1630-1702),[3] and the boy, in his turn, was interested in engineering, and especially explosives, from a young age, learning the basic principles from his father.

Following various business failures, Nobel'sfather moved to Saint Petersburg in 1837 and grew successful there as a manufacturer of machine tools and explosives. He invented modern plywood and started a "torpedo" works.[4] In 1842, the familyjoined him in the city. Now prosperous, his parents were able to send Nobel to private tutors and the boy excelled in his studies, particularly in chemistry and languages, achieving fluency in English,French, German and Russian. [1] For 18 months, during 1841–1842, Nobel went to the only school he ever attended as a child, the Jacobs Apologistic School in Stockholm. [2]

Alfred Nobel's deathmask, at the Nobel museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
As a young man, Nobel studied with chemist Nikolai Zinin, then in 1850 went to Paris to further the work and at 18, he went to the United States for fouryears to study chemistry, collaborating for a short period under inventor John Ericsson who designed the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Nobel filed his first patent, for a gas meter, in1857. [2][5][1]
The family factory produced armaments for the Crimean War (1853 – 1856) but had difficulty switching back to regular domestic production when the fighting ended and they filed forbankruptcy. [1] In 1859, Nobel's father left his factory in the care of the second son, Ludvig Nobel (1831–1888), who greatly improved the business. Nobel and his parents returned to Sweden from Russia and...