A Swedish industrial chemist and inventor of dynamite. One of eight children to poor parents, he showed an early interest in explosives. His father was an inventor and having moved to St Petersburg made his fortune making explosives. Now that it was affordable, Alfred first received private tuition and studied chemistry before moving to Paris and then the US. The Nobel family produced armaments for the Crimean War (1853–56) but thereafter filed for bankruptcy. His brother Ludwig (p. 254) improved the business, while Alfred improved his inventions, including dynamite, and ways in which it could be stabilized. He invented gelignite in 1875. An explosion at his factory in Stockholm killed, amongst others, his younger brother Emil. When his brother Ludwig died in 1888, a French newspaper carried an obituary of Alfred in error condemning him for his invention of dynamite. Having amassed a vast fortune in his lifetime, Alfred left most of his wealth in a trust to fund awards that are known as Nobel Prizes. It is thought that the erroneous obituary convinced him of the need to leave a better legacy after his death.