1949-11-12 — Page 9

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1

The peace-prize man who

invented dynamite

Nobel, the loneliest millionaire : No

friends, no home, no love: He wished

ARADOX, darting vividly through the life of Alfred Nobel, reached its peak nt his death. When they

opened

his desk they found the will leaving the famous Peace Prize buried under de- signs for new instruments. of war.

There you have the riddle of Nobel, and it is easy to get the wrong answer.

to kill

He was not out with bla explosives, it was argued on his behalf: quarry, blasters, miners.

rond

not

and canal cutters, blood-hungry armies, were the customers he wanted to

Herve.

he

he had never been born

by

Masters PHILIP MORTON

of Money..

ALFRED

NOBEL

Nevertheless, he did

There was, for instance, brisk trade in death

the colliu which "white "My factories may end combining cheapness and war sooner than your con- lightness with tasteful ron- to a struction and the necessary Kresses,

wrote pence conference promoter, decoration, could be so made that a person coming to life **On the day when two in it could Bft the lid from army corps will be able to the inside, the id being destroy each other in one provided with airholes for second all civilised nations breathing and a cord at will recoil from wars in tached to n bell," horror and disband their

armies,"

MAN with strange ideas

ALFRED

NOBEL

eid scarcely help being an inventor with such a father 218 Immanuel, Kenius. who strange ideas.

Stockholm" would

not allow

the factory to be rebulit in the city so the business was carried on from a pontoon moored in a lake a few miles outside.

Alfred, whatever he felt, in variably accepted casualties with tho detached philosophy of an army commander,

"One cannot expeel an ex. plosive substance to come into general use without

waste of life," he said,

"I count one necident for each 1,300 ton of dynamite manu- factured," he precisely informed House of Commone commitice, Small wonder that Britain, followed by France.

Belgium. and other States, prohibited the manufacture and, in some cases, even the transport glycerine.

Succes come early.

of

nitro-

that

Then there were the hundreds of thousands he hid to take from his two brothers' oll enterprises ni Baku, which he helped to on the Caspian Sea,

found.

So how the money grew.. Nobel's Explo- sives Company Limit el (1875), was capital iscd

£250,000; Nobel Dynamite Trust Company, Limited, whize shares were Orst quoted

the London Stock Ex- change in 1880, had a

On

tal of £2,000,000, More than 20 years after his death came Nobel Industries Limited, share capital £10,000,000, total assets £24,- 000,000.

Finally, in 1987, Nobel In-

with a share

No one had been able to take Nitro-glycerine explode salle- factorily before Nobel.

By the age of 20 Nobel had dustries, with three other vast succeeded in making nitro- alycerine explode, taken out o

concerns, was merged into the patent la Sweden, and formed Industries, Ltd.,

empire of Imperial Chemical company.

capital of £95,000,000. The working capital Inunched the firal nitro-glycerine Then there was the factory in the world was a mere scheme for catching and £1,400 training young seals "10 be muzzled and tamed in n convenient pond till they answer to their name and eat out of the hand"; then they were to be used to tow defensive mines into posi-

13 natural tion. had

HOM

C.V.R. Thompson

Cubbyhole

currency

THE

NEW YORK.

is slipping again

in New York's "free" market.

1 took an old £ note of mine to one of thene marketa today. It was small cubby hole between & restaurant and a shop

a skyscraper's shopping arcntic.

ini

stocking

A clerk, fling away some Portuguts escudos in drawer filed with the world's currency, looked over my note.

Then he put in the drawer and paid me two dean dollar bills and 53 cents in change. Omelally 2.80 dollars, the deva- lued has dropped lo 2.55 dollars, a discount of 1s. 94d in one week.

Bul Immanuel was prae- tienl on his best daya. le went to Russia, started a

torpedo factory there, and carried his explosives ex- periments to a point that gave Alfred a flying start,

Young Alfred was horn hi one of Stockholm's mean aireets in 1833, which had been a bad year for Im- manuel: he was bankrup

He did well in the short time he was at school, and so did his two brothers Robert and Lod- wig, later to make fortunes, with Alfred's help, in the Caucasian wildfelds,

Weighing-up his sons' ebane:s, the fallzer said: "Ludwig has the muust genlua, Alfred the most

Kobert the inopt Industry, courage."

Alfred came

He was wrong. top, in all three classen.

There lad

been

1, Emall, the manuel's eye.

J1 younger apple of 1m-

He was blown up, with fuur others, in the gunpowder work. shop that the father had started on his return from Nussia,

AN outcry ovor disasters

WAS pressed for money

THE Norwegian patent for not much more than

nitro-glycerine was sold for

£10,000

It was the only case in which Nobel sold a palent outright; he was probably pressed for money at the time.

Intrigues and bickerings, be- devilled all his American trans- actions. Finally, the Atlantic Giant Powder Company

remained (1

formed. Nobel shareholder in it for many years, but his returns from America were comparatively small.

In England, he did better. The British Dynamite Company was formed with a shure capital of £24,500, divided Indo 2,400 shares of £10 each. Nobel took 000 shares for his patents and paid for 300 of the remainder, Bo that he controlled half the share capia).

fou

When Nobel's Explosives Company took its place. years later, the value of the shares had increased tenfeld, Moreover, Nobel took five per-

How did he do it? By putting

ALFRED NOBEL, from a painting by Professor Ostermän

Britain's first dynamite fac- tory, on the sandswept ahores of Scotland, at Ardeer, became one of the greatest in the world.

South Africa, Canada, Japan

He tried to Welle novels. They were sorry, stuff, full of inter- minablé metaphysical and poll- Vical · arguments, especially about his creed that democracy was a useless form of govern- .ment

the stuff in a stoppered gluss were brought into the web, tube, then putting that tube in a though long before his death metal tube

led with

gun- Nobel, weary of the endless powder. lit by a fuse.

from bickerings, had resigned That was all there was to it. the boards of his dynamite com- yet this detonating invention is parties, retaining. Influence only rated as more important in the as a shareholder. revolutionising of the whole bechaique of explosives than his later creation, dynamite,

This come from

forming a ste of nitro-glycerine and in absorbent clay called klesplinthr,

BIGGER and better bangs

FTER dynamite, bigger and better bangs. First, blasting gelathe, which combined the terrifying power or nitro- Alycering with D solution of

tro-cellulose,

Sometimes he took a wizard's holiday and interested himself In the transformation of alumin tum compounds into precious stones, in boilers, brakes, and

barometers."

But of all millionaires, he was the loneliest. True, he loved to talk-of selence, literature, and the grand design for peace--but there his contact ceased. He neither understood, nor sought, Intimate human friendship.

He found no home until latest years; he was always on Nobel had cut his Anger ant the move from country to coun- applied collodion to the wound. try. Kept awake by the pain all night and thinking-when was he nut?-of explosives, he hit on the Idea of using a colludial solution of nitro-ctitulosc.

'FAIR, but repulsivo?

An ∙elected dictator was his fancy. A n atheist, he despleed the Christian dogma but ex- tolled ..the Christian

ethic.

Peace for a powder - binsted world was the Inst

dream

of

armament was rubhish: the only*way" wor .to advance nolitary science until war be ramo Impor- sible.

He proposed;

" council ot Europe to which all countries must submit disputes for

year before making

war:

during the compulsory armistice

tem- pors would Cool,

He also pro-

posed collective security: all States

Flat

bind themselves to take action against the first OKRICSSOT. +

So pre-occupied by thoughts

of death as he had been for many years, racked by head- aches caused by explosions, he sat down to make his will.

Compared with the million- aires of the New World, Nobel's fortune seema almost meagre he left just under £2,000,000.

GAVE beyond his mean 5

TEN years before his death he

had talked of retiring from

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HONGKONG'S BETTER STORES HAVE THEM

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BY

In ald.of.

THE HONGKONG SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHİLDREN.

Organised By The Women's Auxiliary

TO BE HELD IN THE GROUNDS. OF

FLAGSTAFF HOUSE

KIND PERMISSION OF LT. GEN, SIR ROBERT MANSERGU, IRË., C.B., M. C., G.0.0-IN-C, HONGKONG

everything to do with business ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29

and "living like an old maid on the interest on my bonds," anɑ selling he had been gradually out his holdings in dynamite and other undertakings,

He had given a lot away. Re

were guests for help, ho sald, "enough to demoralise Joy Gould, Vanderbilt, and Roths-

child,"

He had, in fort, given beyond his meals, for he told a friend that he had been forced to sup plement his income with 1,000,- 000 francs taken from capital.

He returned from a visit to n Paris specialist to his combined labratory and tunsion at San

hour Remo, where, an

or two after writing a report on some samples of nitro-cellulose pow- der, he had a stroke pnd died,

Then ballistite, the smokeless blasting the nitro-glycerine and nitro-cellu- period of the, pulit.

binding gristins sold during the wider, made of equal parts of it his own life he cared but in December 1896. He was 03.

Through the years Nobel's Explosives Company paid divi- donda

averaging between 12 percent, and 20 percent.

Between 1865 and 1873 fifteen dynamite factories were founded by Nobel, or with his collabora- tion, in various parts of Europe and the United States, and all the time he was drawing steady royoitles from them,

HOW the money grew

luse

litle.

Once in a note to his

to

The

His ashes were brought Sweden,

in and burled family grave.

He had made his will withi

with

addition of camphor. This made the milk- tary experts prick up their ears. This is the invention hardest of all to reconcile with Nobel's pro- fessed hatred of war and armies assassins, whether they com- mit homicide on the battlefields or at home”—and his declared There was no time for women. cording to the canons of the

He called them "the fair, but low. usually

Porl- repulsive, scx.”

The siennes he found dull, educated

brother he described himselt os. "Alfred Nobel. .. whose miserable existence should have been terminated at birth by a humane doctor, as he drew his out legal aid, which added to first, howling breath."

the already considerable dim- culties of interpreting it ac-

the

conviction that all advances of science must ultimately work for the good of humanity.

Italy bought the rights to make ballistite. for 1.45 francs per kilogramme.

The French were angry, ac- cused Nobel of spying on their American womén got one good There were five awards--fol own experiments, and stopped mark: "Did you ever see, except discoveries in physics, chemis him from making his powder in American women, arms and try physiology, Idealistic there.

the grand do-

Legal arguments to είνα validity to the wall were pro- tracted and complicated, judi- cial experts of many countries were called in, and final articles for the Trust were not com- pleted unul 1900.

Prize fund, when Russian women enchanting in lawyers had had their pickings conversation: "Unfortunately and the personal heirs actions they have an aversion to soap, had been settled, amounted to

£1,700,000. but one must not ask too much,”

THERE was an outery, the first

of many against the long list ŋTHERE were, too, other sources "No particular reason for 11," of disasters—the worst were in of revenue. He bought the salu tię clerk. "Not that we can Australia. Sam Francisco, Bofors munitions plant and re- Our own War Ofice, very shy see, any way. It is just that Panama, Norway-that Faler constituted it. With £2,500,000 at first, and insisting there was there are more £ notes in town scarred the Nobel explosive of new capital, the concern nothing like the good old gun- than people want to buy.

trall.

leaped ahead.

cotton, came round in the end. Maybe the end of the tourist season has something to do with .it. Maybe people are gelling more £s out of England. Wo don't ask any questions."

I could have bought all the £ notes 】 wanted for two dollars) and 65 cents.

“WHAT TO DO with Com- Wmuntats: Congressman Omar Burleson will introduce a Blit to turn. a remote Pacific island into an Elba for them. Sald he; "From my navy-experience, 'I know some places which would be, ideal for the pur- pose."

CHOW BUSINESS: A Bln to

be made at one of Holly- wood's studio will be directed by Nicholas Ray, and will star Gloria Grahame. 14 private life they are husband and wife. So today Mr Ray made Mrs Ray "I hereby sign this contract: agree that my husband shall be untitled" to direct, control, ad- viso, instruct, and even com- inand my actions from 9 a.m. jo 6 p.m... I acknowledge that in overy conceivable situation his will and judgment shall be con aldered superior to mine and shall prevail....I agree" not to diatract or influence, hlmn,, VI agree not to abg, cajole, tema, For in any other feminine fashion, seek to 'distract or Influenca.

FISHING? WHO'S FISHING? I'M JUST FEEDING A FISH"

legs that harmonise in width literature, and

Literature was a dream that did tot come true. He burned all his youthful poems but one.

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The first penco prizes loft by the man of war were handed out. four years after Nobel's death. Just before that had come the final freak of fate. Nobel, rack- ed by ill-healthy, was taking medicine.

"It seems an frony,” he said, "that they now prescribe nitro- olpcerine for me. They call it trinkit, so as not to terrify the drigplats! and the public”

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