ist, Mr. Fehrenbach, who remained his faithful assistant for eighteen years. He travelled a great deal, visiting the factories in the different countries in Europe, and assisting them with his technical advice. He never in any year failed to go to Sweden to see his mother, and occasionally he went to St. Petersburg on a visit to his brother, Ludwig. Those who knew Nobel in those days describe him as a very amiable and cheerful companion, of a sympathetic, confiding, and kind disposition; and then, as all through life, his highly polished manner and extreme courtesy could not fail to be remarked. His reading was prodigious; he had not only a thorough knowledge of the scientific literature of the day, but made poetry and ideal literature, as he called it, his main hobby. The result was that he greatly improved his knowledge of languages. He was not only proficient in Swedish and Russian, but his knowledge of English, German, and French was far beyond the average. He was particularly fond of English, and was not only able to recite long passages from the classical authors, more particularly from Byron, whom he admired above all other poets, but could also himself write English poetry. Long poems in Swedish and in English have been found among his papers. He remained a bachelor through life; at times he thought of marriage, but found it impossible to meet with a suitable companion. His linguistic attainments and highly developed philosophical thought rendered this very difficult. Early in life he had a disappointment in love, caused by the death of the lady to whom he was devoted, which affected him profoundly; then adversity and the subsequent struggle to attain success stood in his way, and when he found himself in the desired position and settled down in Paris, he had reached an age when men become fastidious, and dread the risk of linking their lives to any one who may possibly not be able to understand their thoughts, their aspirations, and their views of life. He thought that he would be able to arrange his life according to his own ideas, to see people at his house, and gradually have a salon, where he would gather round him the intellectual society of the day; but he soon found that he could not do the duties of both host and hostess; moreover, he seems to have unfortunately fallen in with people who abused his kindness, and he very soon almost entirely withdrew from society, devoting himself exclusively to study and work. The direction in which Nobel next worked was to improve his dynamite by substituting an active substance for the tweny-five per cent. of inert matter which served as an absorbent for the nitro-glycerine, and he thought that the best way to accomplish this would be to find, if possible, a substance which would dissolve in nitro-glycerine so as to form a homogeneous paste. While experimenting in search of such a material, he one day cut his finger, and sent out for some collodion to form an artificial skin to protect the wound; having used a few drops of the fluid for that purpose, it occurred to him to pour the remainder into some nitroglycerine, and he thus discovered blasting gelatine, which he patented in December, 1875. Collodion is made by dissolving a certain kind of guncotton in a volatile solvent (a mixture of ether and alcohol), and Nobel suggested that the viscous substance obtained by thus treating gun-cotton should be mixed with the nitro-glycerine so as to form a jelly. On further experiment the solvent was dispensed with, and blasting gelatine was made, as it is now, by warming the nitroglycerine, and adding about 8 per cent. of a certain kind of gun-cotton, which was found to be soluble in nitro-glycerine. The new explosive, half as strong again as dynamite, was found to be too violent in its action to be applicable to any but the hardest rock. Nobel, however, discovered how to moderate its action, and gelatine dynamite and gelignite were manufactured by the addition of saltpetre and woodmeal to a blasting gelatine of less consistency than that employed without such admixture. Blasting gelatine was used in large quantities in the piercing of the St. Gothard tunnel, where the rock was so hard that no satisfactory work could be done without it. Since then the use of the so-called gelatine explo sives has developed more and more, and in some countries they have entirely superseded dynamite. These additions to the nitro-glycerine explosives, which can be employed with safety and efficiency for different classes of work, have materially contributed. to the great advance which has been made in the science of blasting, and at the present day more than threefourths of all the blasting done in the world is carried out by means of nitroglycerine compounds. The laboratory in his residence at Paris soon proved too small, and Nobel therefore transferred it to St. Sevran, where he purchased a house and grounds for the purpose. From 1875 to 1879 he took out no patents of note; he was chiefly occupied in assisting his factories to overcome the difficulties which arose in the manufacture of the gelatine explosives, although he made numerous experiments in other directions. While Alfred was attaining celebrity and wealth through his inventions in the domain of modern explosives, his brother Ludwig was developing the engineering works on the Neva. The business had extended to such a degree that he erected two additional works, and he took up the manufacture of small arms. His brother Robert, who had given up his seafaring life, had been engaged in the erection of explosives works in Finland, and in the management of the dynamite works at Winterviken, and had then joined his brother Ludwig. In 1873, a large order for rifles, necessitating a production of 700 a day, had been received, and the question arose how to obtain the wood required for the stocks. The best wood for the purpose was walnut, the finest quality of which could be obtained in the Caucasus, and Robert Nobel went there to try and obtain it. In the course of his journey he came to Baku, on the Caspian Sea, and saw the numerous petroleum wells, which were worked in a most primitive manner, the raw oil being placed in leathern bags and carried on camels' backs for use in the crude state. On his return to St. Petersburg, he discussed the matter with his brother, and after thorough investigation the brothers decided to work these petroleum wells. in a rational manner, and in 1878 the firm of Nobel Brothers was established. They connected about 300 wells by a system of pipes with the factories, where the oil was purified. Tank lighters carried the oil to the Volga, tank trucks carried it by rail all over Russia, and large tank-reservoirs were erected at certain places for storage. Nobel Brothers and the Russian petroleum came more and more to the fore, and have now acquired a world-wide reputation. Alfred Nobel entered into this undertaking with his brothers, and contributed a large portion of the required capital. He also took an active interest in the technical questions which arose in connection with the refining of petroleum, and made some valuable suggestions, a few of which are to be found in patents which he took out in 1879 and 1884. It was in 1879 also that he filed a patent relating to the purification of cast iron, which shows that he had then already given attention to questions of metallurgy, which occupied him to so marked a degree toward the end of his life. Patents for a new detonator and a receptacle for explosives which are affected by the moisture of the atmos phere bear evidence that from 1879 to 1884 he did not entirely neglect that branch of applied science in which he excelled. It was in the autumn of 1882 that I first met Alfred Nobel, and for some time after that I saw him very frequently. He was a man of average height and very slender build, with a slight stoop, no doubt due to the weakness of the spine from which he had suffered when a child; he gave the impression of a very nervous disposition. He suffered greatly from nervous headaches, and frequently had to work with cold water bandages round his head. was also troubled with bronchitis in the winter, and was but rarely perfectly well. Seldom, however, did he give way to his physical ailments, so that he was not often laid up, and even in the winter he would drive daily to his laboratory in the country, and could be seen huddled up in fur rugs in his carriage, absorbed in thought. He always wore a full beard, which was of a light brown color, as was his strik ingly fine though sparse hair; his small light eyes, overshadowed by heavy eyebrows, were full of expression and revealed his extraordinary intelligence. He usually wore a black frockcoat with the red rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honor. Never, except at official receptions, did he wear any other of his numerous decorations. He did not attach much value to these orders, but fully appreciated university distinctions conferred upon him, and was deeply disappointed at not being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The house in which he lived was not large, but compact and convenient. Entering by an arched gateway wide enough to admit a carriage, you found on the left a glass door leading into the hall; in front of you the courtyard with stables and coach house, and beyond it a small garden. The study was on the ground floor: it was a large room with red leather furniture; a bookcase occupied one of the walls, a settee the other, and over it hung a handsome picture; a writing table stood near one of the windows, and close to it another smaller one for his private secretary. This was rarely occupied, for although on several occasions he tried the experiment of having a secretary, it always ended in his doing the work himself, writing his own. letters and keeping his own accounts. An old housekeeper was the only person to whom he ever entrusted the classification of his papers, which was no trifle, considering the number of languages in which he received communications, and in which he made notes and wrote replies. At one end of his study, a door led into his laboratory, or, more correctly, what remained of my it, for nearly all the apparatus had been taken into the country. A conservatory on the first floor was a favorite resort after meals, and it is there that I have enjoyed charming hours listening to the highly intellectual and thoroughly original conversation of my eminent host. The diversity of the subjects broached was extraordinary, and whenever he wanted to express a thought for which he felt that a more appioriate term existed in another language he would use that term and continue to speak in that language until the search for an appropriate term to express another thought made him fall into another language again, a habit which became more and more striking according to the number of languages with which his listener was acquainted. Nobel was not what we should call a patron of art. Being very nervous, and tiring of the pictures around him, he had made an arrangement with one of the largest picture dealers in Paris, by which he could select any pictures he liked, and have them hung on his walls. As soon as he was tired of one set, he sent them back to the dealer, and selected others in their stead. He was very frugal, but entertained royally, taking a great pride in the perfect appointment of his table and his cellar. The idea of making a substitute for india-rubber occupied him considerably from 1882 to 1888, and he took a vivid interest in the development of the industry of celluloid. But above all he continued to work in search of a new propelling agent to replace black powder for use in small arms and ordnance, and for this purpose he purchased a cannon, which he mounted, with the permission of the Government, at one of the disused forts near Paris, not far from his laboratory. The fact that improved powders could be made, and that a scientific powder would be smokeless, was well known. A smokeless powder for sporting purposes had been suggested as far back as 1864 by Schultze, then a captain in the Prussian artillery. sian artillery. In 1882, other smokeless sporting powders had been invented, but no suitable powder had yet been made for use in rifles and cannon. While Nobel was working in many different directions to find such a powder, the French Government adopted a smokeless powder made by Vielle, the celebrated chemist of the French Government powder works, which consisted of gun-cotton reduced to a horny mass by means of a solvent, which was evaporated; and shortly afterward a similar powder was made in Germany. The smokeless powder which Nobel made in 1888 was based on his discovery that by means of heated rollers he could incorporate with nitro-glycerine a very high percentage of that soluble nitro-cellulose, or gun-cotton, which his factories were using in the manufacture of blasting gelatine. Blasting gelatine altered by means of moderating substances had been tried for use in guns, but it had burst them. Nobel now found that if the nitrated cotton was increased from eight to about fifty per cent. he obtained a powder suitable for fire-arms. The progress made in the construction of weapons, and more particularly the introduction of quickfiring guns, made it necessary to have a smokeless powder, and higher velocities determining straighter trajectories could be attained with arms resisting high pressures. While working in search of such a powder, Nobel patented several methods for regulating the pressure in guns, and modifying the recoil. He also devoted much attention to explosives for use in shells, and patented several improvements in the construction of projectiles. It was in the beginning of 1888 that he took out his patent for the well-known Nobel's smokeless powder, or ballistite. His discovery that the two most powerful shattering explosives, nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton, when mixed in about equal proportions, would form a slow-burning powder, a propulsive agent with pressures which would not exceed the resistance of modern weap. ons, caused extreme surprise in technical circles. The Italian Government was the first to introduce his new powder into the service, and later on the German Government accepted it in a somewhat modified form. Nobel submitted his powder to the British Explosive Committee, which had been appointed to recommend the best powder for the service, by examining existing powders and improving on them. This committee found that instead of employing that kind of gun-cotton which is soluble in nitro-glycerine with the assistance of heat, the insoluble kind could be used provided an assistant solvent be added; and that the manufacture could then be carried out at lower temperatures; the powder thus obtained is known as cordite, and this they recommended. In 1888, Ludwig Nobel died at St. Petersburg. He was known there as the petroleum king, and left a very large fortune to his widow and chil dren. By some mistake, some of the newspapers thought it was the inventor of dynamite who had died, and Alfred Nobel had an opportunity of reading what the papers would have said of him had he died at that time. He did not take much notice of the praise which he found in some of the English and German prints, nor was he much distressed at the unkindly way in which the French press treated him, neither did he care much when a few years later the French press started a chauvinistic campaign against him, chiefly because he had sold his powder to the Italians. But when the French Government took notice of it, Nobel decided in 1891 to close his laboratory, and to leave Paris. He purchased a villa at San Remo, which he first called "Mio nido" (My nest), but it was afterward known as "Villa Nobel." He built a magnificently appointed laboratory in the garden, which he placed in charge of an English chemist, Mr. B. H. Beckett, who remained with him until his death. Mr. Fehrenbach had declined to follow him to Italy. Shortly before he left Paris, his mother died in Stockholm at an advanced age. This bereavement moved him deeply, as his love for his mother was the one deep paramount affection of his life. To her he was not the celebrated Alfred Nobel; she invariably called him by his second name; she alone had the privilege of calling him "Berney." On some few occasions in life only he emphasized the attachment he felt for a friend by thus signing his name. Sir Isaac Newton, when he hesitated. to publish the third part of his Principia, wrote to Halle: "Philosophy is such an imperatively litigious lady that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuit as have to do with her." If this is true of philosophy, of the announcement of a newly discovered truth, it applies much more literally still to a valuable new invention. Nobel's dynamite patent had given rise to a lawsuit in this country, and its validity was maintained by a decision of the House of Lords. In France he successfully defended his blasting gelatine patent, but in Germany, where he had described its manufacture by the use of an assisting solvent, the manufacture of the explosive without the solvent was not considered covered by his patent. The invention of his smokeless powder led to a lawsuit in Great Britain, where the courts held that the cordite manufactured by the Government was not an infringement of what Nobel had patented. He had not used an assistant solvent; he had not made the powder at low temperatures, but he had used the well-known soluble kind of gun-cotton incorporated with nitro-glycerine. The loss of the socalled cordite case caused him great pain, not on account of the material loss, but because he felt himself aggrieved by the absence of recognition. The manufacture of smokeless powder and the trials he had made led him, as we have already seen, to study the construction of fire-arms, and more particularly of ordnance. In order to carry out his ideas more thoroughly, he purchased in 1892 the large Swedish ordnance works at Bofors, and united with them the works at Bjorneborg. He established a laboratory at Bofors, where he was chiefly assisted by Ragnar Sohlman, to whom he became greatly attached, showing his great confidence in this gentleman by appointing him one of his executors. Nobel took a vivid interest in all new inventions and discoveries. In 1892, he had a yacht built at Zurich, entirely made of aluminium, with the exception of one pipe, which was copper. The manu The facture of artificial silk also attracted his attention, and he suggested some improvements, but the invention to which he attached most importance was his artificial india rubber, which he patented in 1893 and 1894. practical value of this, however, did not come up to his expectations, and he was still working on the improvement of this material at the time of his death. He took out patents up till August, 1896, but most of his latest suggestions relate to the manufacture of fire-arms. In the beginning of 1896, his brother Robert, who had retired from the St. Petersburg business in 1881 on account of ill-health, and who had settled down in Sweden, died. His death deeply affected his brother Alfred, whose altered appearance struck all his friends when they saw him after he returned from the funeral. He was himself suffering from heart disease, which he knew would prove fatal. He had purchased a sphygmograph, and carefully watched the diagrams recording the irregularities of his pulse, and on one occasion he showed a friend the degree of variation which would infallibly kill him. It was of this heart disease that he died in the night of the 9th of December, 1896, an old manservant alone being near him. Death was preceded by paralysis, which robbed him of the power of speech. His will was found at Stockholm. directed that his remains should be cremated. He was always in favor of cremation, or of some other hygienic. means of disposing of the dead. He never employed a lawyer for any of his contracts, nor in the framing of his patents, and his last will shows that he did not call in any legal assistance. He used to say that he was not a good business man, but the wonderful foresight with which he selected investments points the other way. He The success of the industry which he had founded, the royalties he received for his different inventions, the careful investments he made, as well as the income he derived from his share in the Russian petroleum business, account for the large fortune he has left. With the exception of legacies to relatives and friends, he left his entire estate for public purposes, directing that the money be invested so as to constitute a fund, the interest of which shall be applied to five equal annual prizes to be awarded for the most important discovery or improvement in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, for the work in literature highest in the ideal sense, and to the one who shall have acted most and best for the fraternity of nations, the suppression or reduction of standing armies, and the constitution and propagation of peace congresses. The first prizes, physics and chemistry, shall be awarded by the Academy of Science of Sweden; that for physiology and medicine by the Carolin Institute of Stockholm; the literary prize by the Swedish Academy; and that for the propagation of peace by a commission of five members elected |