THE NOBEL FAMILY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1289, 13 January 1885, Page 3

THE NOBEL FAMILY.

Dynamite, that terrible agent of destruction which has these last few years been so actively engaged in frying the resources of our civilization, was discovered by Alfred Nobel iu 1867. The Nobel family is one so remarkable that, in an article on dynamite, a brief notice of them will not seem out of place. Emmanuel, the father of the three brothers, Robert, Ludwig, and Alfredeach of whom is now a millionaire—was the inventor of the torpedo, which in 1833, the year of the discovery of guncotton, he carried from his home in Sweden to St. Petersburg, and sold to the Russian Government, When the Crimean war broke out, Emmanuel Nobel bad an engineering establishment on the Neva, where bis sons Robert and Ludwig were employed ; and there, under bis supervision, were manufactured those submarine mines which proved so troublesome to our fleet while blockading Cronstadt, and the engines for the gunboats and men-of-war built by the Russian Government in large numbers in 3855, the second year of the war. Five years later the works had developed into one of the largest in Russia, and though, in anticipation of Government contracts, Emmanuel Nobel had sunk a considerable amount of capital in still further extending them, the promises of orders were not realised, and in the end the firm suspended payment. The father retired to Sweden, where he died j Ludwig, who had already a great reputation as an engineer, carried on the works for two years, at the request of the creditors, as manager ; Robert went to Germany, where he devoted himself to the petroleum interest, the rapid development of which in America was then the talk of commercial Europe ; and Alfred the discoverer of dynamite, began to follow those chemical pursuits which has given him an interest in fourteen factories in different parts of Europe. With £SOO saved during his two years of management, Ludwig Nobel established some small engineering works, where he took a series of contracts from the Government for casting shot and shell, and in twelve years realised £400,000. In 1875 Robert, helped with capital by his brother, began operations as petroleum refiner in a small way at Baku, on the Caspian, his attention having been drawn to the industry there the year before during a Journey in the Caucasus in search of walnut wood for Ludwig’s rifle stocks. In the face of a hundred and twenty other refineries and the most stupendous difficulties of transport, the Nobel Brothers’ _ Production Company (familiar to Russians as tho To vanish chest vo NephtanaveProisvodstva Bratieff Nobel) has gradually grown, until at the present time they supply the whole of Russia with oil, and, since the opening ot the Baku-Batoum railway, will no doubt supply a great part of Europe, India, and China. They have succeeded in driving all American kerosene out of their home markets, and, now that the chasm between Baku and Europe is being bridged over, will scarcely find difficulty in treating it in the same manner abroad, —Cornhill Magazine.