Alfred nobel, the great swedish inventor and industrialist was a man of many contrasts. He was the son of a bankrupt, but became a millonaire, a scientist with a love of literature, an industrialist who managed tr remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life and although cheerful in company, he was often sad in private. He was a lover of mankind, but he never had a family to love him.
he invented a new explosive, dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries of mining and road building, but it saw used as weapon of war to kill and injure his fellow men. He had never been to school or university but by the time he was twenty, he was a skilful chemist and excellent linguist, speaking swedish, russian, german, french and english. He had better luck in business and built up over : companies in 20 different countries. Nobel's main concern was never with making money even with making scientific discoveries. He was always -interested in literature and philosophy. He left money to wide annual prizes for outstanding work in physics. Chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature and peace, without any consideration for nationality