Monday, November 06, 2006

Nobel Peace Prize Italian "Connection" & the 20 Italian/Italian American Winners

The ANNOTICO Report

Few realize that it was an "improvement" on Ascanio Sobrero, an Italian chemist's invention of Nitroglycerine, to a more stable Dynamite that made Alfred Nobel rich and famous.

Or that it was Italy, ( that was only 30 years old at the time) when others ignored Nobel, that helped him introduce another revolutionary invention called Ballistite, an explosive for mining.

Nor do they know that Nobel, lived the last 5 years of his life in San Remo, Italy. 

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the 21st October 1833, and then moved with his family to St. Petersburg, Russia, after his father's company fell into bankruptcy in Sweden. In Russia, the Nobel family survived thanks to a small mechanical business owned by the father and a grocery store owned by the mother.

Then Nobel's father, Immanuel, an engineer and inventor, convinced the Tzar of the importance of naval mines for the Russian army. With the Russian military as his client, his business took off and the Nobel brothers were given first class education by private teachers. By the age of 17, Alfred could speak Swedish, Russian, French, German and English.Alfred proved to be an exceptional pupil, fascinated by culture, world literature, poetry, but also by chemistry and physics.

Ironically, while Alfred Nobel was a devout pacifist, and best known as the founder of the Nobel Prizes, an annual award given to outstanding contributions to mankind in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine and peace, his greatest invention of many, dynamite, that was intended for construction purposes, was turned into one of the greatest weapons of War and Death.

In 1850, Alfred Nobel went to study abroad and become a chemical engineer as his father. During a two year period Alfred Nobel visited Sweden, Germany, France and the United States. In Paris, Alfred met Ascanio Sobrero, an Italian chemist who had invented nitroglycerin, and started thinking on how nitroglycerin could be transformed into a technically useful explosive to be used in construction work.

In 1852 Alfred returned to Russia to work in the booming family business, but by the end of the Crimean war of 1853-1856 Nobel's father fell again into bankruptcy and Alfred moved back to Stockholm.

Not until 1863, did Alfred finally discover how Sobrero's nitroglycerine could be made into a paste which could be shaped into rods and inserted into drilling holes. In 1867 he patented his invention under the name of "dynamite". Dynamite became a revolutionary invention which speeded up the drilling of tunnels, the building of canals and many other forms of great construction works in the 19th century.

While living in France in 1887, Nobel introduced another revolutionary invention called ballistite, an explosive for mining which was eventually applied to military ammunition. He offered first his invention to the French government but they declined his offer, so Nobel offered his product to the Italian government. The Italians did accept it and a large factory in Avigliana, Turin, was fitted for the production of ballistite in 1889.

This deal was not received well in France and a defamatory press campaign against Nobel started. He was accused of espionage and "high treason against France", threatened with imprisonment, and forbidden to conduct experiments in France. Disappointed and bitter, Nobel left France in 1891 and settled in San Remo, Italy.

San Remo would become the ground for several of Alfred Nobel's later inventions not completed during his lifetime but perfected by others afterwards, such us the development of varnishes, synthetic rubber and leather and artificial silk. He also resumed his socially, politically, and bureaucratically critical writing.

The move to the Mediterranean climate of San Remo, Italy was actually beneficial to Alfred's health.However, he still kept his hectic lifestyle, that caused his death on December 10, 1896 at his home in San Remo.

http://www.scandinavica.com/

culture/famous/nobel.htm

According to Italians R Us, Antonio Parente, There are 20 Italian & Italian American Nobel Prize Award Winners:

Guglio Marconi, Enrico Fermi, Emilio Gino Segre, Carlo Rubbia, Riccardo Giacconi, Giuglio Natta, Camillo Golgi, Daniel Bovet, Salvador E. Luria, Renato Dulbecco, Rita Levi-Montalcini,  Giosue Carducci, Grazia Deledda, Luigi Pirandello, Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale, Dario Fo, Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Franco Modigliani, William D. Phillips (?)

Details at: http://www.italiansrus.com/

articles/nobelprizes.htm

The ANNOTICO Reports

Can be Viewed, and are Archived at:

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Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net