Known for inventing dynamite, and the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel has been one of the most controversial figures in recent world history. His contributions have led to the Bath School Massacre (deadliest school massacre in US history), National Airline Flight 2551 Explosion, and numerous terrorist attacks.’ However, because of Alfred Nobel we have the Nobel Prize which rewards the biggest achievements in different fields every year. The monetary funds, and prestige of the Nobel Prize often makes impressive individuals worldwide strive for greatness. Nonetheless, the true story of why he created the Nobel Prize can be interpreted in different ways. It is said that a French newspaper accidently published Alfred Nobel’s obituary when, in fact, his older brother, Ludvig had died. The obituary condemned Nobel for monetising off dynamite. Devastated at reading what his legacy would be, he created the Nobel Prize so that, in theory, individuals worldwide could be thanked for their contributions to society?
On one hand, it can be argued that Nobel donated his life’s savings with only the intention to make himself look better. On the other hand, it could be said that Nobel created the Nobel prize so that people can be remembered for their participation in the advancement of humanity. It is also important to note, that of the five original Nobel prizes, not all where related to science. Although, the three sciences, and medicine take up four of the five slots, the final prize Nobel made was that of peace.’ Perhaps, this signifies that even though Nobel wanted a prize which recognises scientific achievements, he also wanted people to recognise that the eventual goal of the advancement of humanity is peace. As said in his own words: “I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea… Nevertheless, to truly understand the complexity of the situation, we must go back to 1833. Alfred Nobel had just be born into a family which produced, and sold armaments from their factory in Stockholm, Sweden.* From a young age, Alfred became very interested in a specific sector of armaments: explosives. He went on to do construction work in Stockholm City where he would design bridges, and tunnels. His unique style, and his father’s work in the same industry made him a very prominent figure in the construction world of Sweden. However, things took a sharp turn in 1864 when his youngest brother, Emil Nobel, died in a nitroglycerin explosion at his own family’s factory. Many sources believe that this, along with his construction work, inspired him to attempt to create a safe to handle explosive. Previously, nitroglycerin was the most used explosive. Invented by the Italian Chemist, Ascanio Sobrero, nitroglycerin is a compound made of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen—– C}H NO. This combination makes it so unstable that a slight jolt, or friction can set off an explosion. Pure nitroglycerin degrades over time no matter what, making it very unstable. Oxygen, and nitrogen make nitrate which is safe on its own but highly reactive with a fuel, which in this case is hydrocarbon. This is because Nitrate decomposes into N with a certain amount of activation energy, but the energy needed to break the triple nitrate bonds is so big that nitroglycerin creates a huge reaction. The formation of bonds such as carbon monoxide (CO), and water (H20) also adds on with the high pressure caused by newly created gases which creates a powerful exothermic reaction.? The idea of dynamite was to create an explosion just as big which wouldn’t go off with the slightest agitation. Therefore, Nobel started experimenting with different stabilisers until he eventually found kieselgur, a naturally occurring paste like substance made from 80-90% silica (silicon dioxide). Kieselgur soaks up the nitroglycerin, therefore, stabilising it, and making it a lot easier to handle. This new found safety meant that dynamite could be used worldwide to destroy land for building purposes, and to enhance mining. However, it also paved the way for a new era of chemical weaponry which would lead to brutal deaths of many.
Once Nobel patented his dynamite invention, he went on to patent 355 similar inventions so that the entire idea of mixing nitroglycerin with an absorbent stabilizer became completely belonging to him. Therefore, it led many to believe that he was more concerned about monetising off his new inventions, then using it for the better of the world. While it is not in my position to make a judgement on if that is true or not, it is undoubtedly true that even if Nobel hadn’t discovered dynamite someone else would have found a way to stabilize nitroglycerin. When it comes to scientific inventions it is key to take into account that just because something has yet to be discovered, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there. Furthermore, there is also a positive to all negatives, and therefore, it would be wrong to say that Nobel did not use his invention for good too. Even if he did monetise from his invention, it also did a lot of good. Apart from all the mining, and construction work, some people even believe that the new era of chemical warfare is holding this world together. In fact, as once said by Nobel himself “My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.” If you consider our world today, many people believe that the only reason that we live in harmony is because we know that if we did otherwise it would lead to mutual destruction at the hands of chemical warfare. That is why I would not go as far as to condemn Nobel for his invention of dynamite, especially since we do not know what his intentions were. It would only make logical sense to monetize off of your own invention, it doesn’t make you bad a person. Nonetheless, it could be argued that Nobel could have had tighter regulations on how dynamite could be used.
On the other hand, even though I don’t think Nobel should be condemned for his invention of dynamite. I also feel that he shouldn’t be commended for his creation of the Nobel Prizes. Think of it from the point of view of famous philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Immanuel argued that the only act coming from “good will” is an act done without a moral obligation, or any obligation for that case. It seems pretty obvious, but Kant was simply trying to say that something which is truly “good” must be done because of logic, rather than emotions, or consequences. For that case, despite all the good the Nobel prizes have done in encouraging new methods to create a better future, it is probably not the reason Nobel invented the prizes. As said before, it is well known fact that Nobel only invented the prizes after he read his obituary, therefore he most likely did not do it out of logic, but because of his emotions towards his unintended but somewhat unconvincing legacy.
Nonetheless, from an economic point, dynamite has revolutionised the speed at which we can build. It has been extremely useful, in effectively destroying roads, and buildings needed for construction. The speed at which dynamite works means that we can completely adapt our methods for building. Furthermore, dynamite has been incredibly useful for mining, because of dynamite less developed countries can easily mine without breaking any labour laws. In a way it started the change from hard man labour, to a reliance on technology. While different people have different views on whether this change is overall positive, or negative, we can not deny that main labour was a lot more dangerous, and expensive. Prior to dynamite a lot of deaths in the industry of building, and mining took place. Nitroglycerin was simply too unstable, and as we know from the death of Nobel’s own brother, Alfred fully recognised that a change needed to occur. Therefore, the invention of dynamite was to save lives, but once the product came into market it’s military applications soon became quite obvious. However, the lasting impact of dynamite has not been for military reasons, but because it’s mass production meant an easy to handle explosive. In many ways, dynamite really gave a boost to the industrial revolution, because of the new speed of which things can be built. As we all know, the industrial revolution has completely changed the market worldwide, while also increasing working standards everywhere.
Another huge impact that dynamite has had is that on the environment. However, this time it is not so positive. The balanced relative chemical formula for dynamite is as follows: 4C3H5N309 – > 6N2 + 12C0 + 10H20 + 702.” However, before we get into the specific chemical elements which could be harmful to the environment, let’s already establish that dynamite releases a powerful exothermic reaction which you can imagine would just be devastating to its surroundings, and the absorbent essence of soil will also take on some of the byproducts of nitroglycerin which can never be good. In fact according to the US Government, over 1.2 million tons of soil in the US has been affected by explosives. 12 More importantly, we can see that once the full chemical process of “dynamite” is finished, we are left with three elements: Nitrogen, Water, Oxygen, and…….Carbon Monoxide. This is just not useful whatsoever, because carbon monoxide is absolutely atrocious for the environment. If exposed to Carbon Monoxide for too long it will have fatal consequences, and it can be hard to notice contamination since Carbon Monoxide is an odorless, and colourless gas at room temperature. Also, when carbon monoxide is emitted into the atmosphere it affects the amount of greenhouse gases, which are linked to climate change and global warming. This means that land and sea temperature increases changing to ecosystems, increasing storm activity and causing other extreme weather events. 3 Furthermore, dynamite has also led to a new technique of fishing known as dynamite fishing. This is a brilliant example because it truly contrasts the positive, and negative impacts of dynamite. Although now band, dynamite fishing used to be a very popular technique of capturing many fish in a short time. Fishing using dynamite has led to many more households being fed everyday, it has also created new jobs in the fishing industry. However, even without getting into the ethics of killing fish, from a purely environmental point of view, throwing dynamite can have very negative impacts especially if it hits a coral reef which is more likely than you would think. Coral reefs serve as a breeding place for baby fish. So, if the remaining coral reefs are destroyed we might encounter a seafood shortage. This is clearly counterproductive to the whole point of using dynamite for fishing in the first place.” On top of that, as discussed before, carbon monoxide is incredibly toxic, so throwing that into the sea to capture fish will only make the carbon monoxide end up back on your plate when you eat fish. This just goes to show that a great idea in theory, can have terrible consequences.
I am not trying to claim that the same idea applies to dynamite as it has undoubtedly been very useful in the last few decades. Nonetheless, it’s terrible impacts on our environment, and it’s possible usage in conflict means that we must not think of it as a final solution. However, blaming Nobel for dynamite is absurd because no matter what his intentions were, dynamite was a scientific discovery, not an invention. As once said by George Bernard Snow “Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.” This is the reality of not only science, but any change on earth, there will always be some positive, and negative impacts. Clearly, Nobel did monetise off dynamite, but was he really wrong to make money off the product he had spent years of his life developing? He knew that dynamite can be used for both good, and bad, but that is not a reason to decide that unveiling dynamite would be counterproductive. We do not stop freedom of expression, for example, just because people can use it negatively, instead we hope that people will be responsible enough, and as a society we learn how to use our voice properly. Then why should it be no different for dynamite? At the end of the day, all scientific achievements in some way have had a negative impact (eg. Einstein with his nuclear research), but we can not blame the science, instead we must teach society how to use the scientific advancements to save the world, not destroy it. As once said by Helen Keller, “Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.” Dynamite did not kill human beings, and dynamite did not degrade the environment, rather it is the ignorance of human beings that caused all the negative that came from dynamite. Nitroglycerin had been killing people by accidents, but in almost all cases of a dynamite disasters it was intentional murders. As for the environment, if Carbon Monoxide is really affecting our planet then it is our duty to create a safe zone, and to contain the gas, but let’s not forget that dynamite doesn’t chug itself into the sea, we have to throw it in there, and the only reason for that is our own human ignorance. Nobel simply presented us with dynamite, the history of the explosive was ours to write, and will be ours to write as we move forward.
Works Cited
- No Title, www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2006/Macgee/Web Project/nitroglycerin.htm. Kant, www.loyno.edu/~folse/Kant.html.
- National Pollutant Inventory, www.npi.gov.au/resource/carbon-monoxide. “10 Tragedies Caused By Dynamite.” Listverse, 21 June 2014, listverse.com/2013/07/28/10- tragedies-caused-by-dynamite/.
- “Alfred Nobel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred Nobel.
- Bellis, Mary. “Can You Guess What Alfred Nobel Invented?” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/history-of-dynamite-1991564.
- Bescoby, Caroline. “Dynamite Industrial Revolution.” Prezi.com, 21 June 2013, prezi.com/kgomwiz9kc62/dynamite-industrial-revolution/. “Dynamite.” How Products Are Made, www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Dynamite.html. “Dynamite Fishing: Its Cause and Effect.” Olivermarian, 10 July 2015, olivermarian.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/dynamite-fishing-its-cause-and-effect/.
- “Ecological Impact of Explosives.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_impact_of_explosives.
- Istanboulian, Armand. “Chemical Reaction of Dynamite.” Prezi.com, 19 Mar. 2014, prezi.com/ecguigyefise/chemical-reaction-of-dynamite/. “Ludvig Nobel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludvig_Nobel.
- “Nobel Prize.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize. “Why Nitrates Are so Explosive?” Physics Forums – The Fusion of Science and Community, 22 Mar. 2013, www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-nitrates-are-so-explosive.680252/. Original Copy is by Utsav Bahl (2018)
