Did you know: The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death The Prize in Economic Sciences, was established in 1968 by Sveriges Riksbank.
Did you know: Each recipient, known as a laureate, receives a green gold medal plated with 24 karat gold, a diploma, and a monetary award which is is 11,000,000 kr, equivalent to approximately US$1,035,000
Did you know: No more than three individuals may share a prize, although the Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded to organisations of more than three people. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously,
Did you know: Five individuals and two organisations have received more than one Nobel Prize
Did you know: Between 1901 and 2026, the five Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences (since 1969) were awarded 633 times to 1,018 people and organisations.
We all know about the Nobel Prize – of course. We might also know that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. There is a great story (myth most likely) that he read his premature obituary, calling him ‘the merchant of death’. It got him to consider how he would be remembered, so he changed his will. His (big) fortune would then go to something worthwhile. Good story, but probably not true. What is true is that he was an inventor and had some 350 patents of all kind of things. We found some of the non-lethal ones here: 1894. Patent number 5671. Ways to produce substitutes for caoutchouc, gutta-percha, leather and varnishes. “Caoutchouc” (natural rubber) and “gutta-percha” (a rigid Malayan tree latex used to insulate underwater telegraph cables) were highly expensive, vital 19th-century materials. Nobel’s patent aimed to use chemical modifications of nitrocellulose—the same base material he used to make gelignite or blasting gelatin—blended with oils to create tough, waterproof, and flexible molded plastics. This chemis-
try eventually paved the way for early synthetic leathers and industrial plastics 1896. Patent number 8237. Press nozzles, tiles and other objects with fine holes of predetermined finite diameter and the method of producing such. 1857. Patent number 2507. Gas meter. • The Milestone: This was Alfred Nobel’s very first patent. He filed it in England in 1857, long before he turned his focus to explosives and invented dynamite. • The Technology: The invention was a diaphragm gas meter. It worked like a two-piston double-action engine, filling and emptying internal chambers to measure the volume of fuel gas passing through. 1859. Patent number 556. Construction of barometer or manometer, with the aim of creating a cheap and easy to transport pressure gauge. 1879. Patent number 2314. Purification of pig-iron. 1887. Patent number 16920. Safety explosives of copper ammonium nitrate for coal mines containing coal dust or explosive mine gases. 1896, the patent titled “Improved method of making photographic maps or measurements of land” outlined Nobel’s early conceptual framework for aerial photography and rocket-based cartography