TIME.CO, Jakarta – Nobel prize entered its 122nd year since it was first held in 1901 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is named after its initiator, Alfred Nobel. All Nobel Prizes come from Alfred Nobel’s wealth. Alfred Nobel’s wealth came entirely from his business selling dynamite. He is the inventor of dynamite.
Reporting from thinkco.com, Alfred Nobel was born October 21, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He has an architect father. In addition to being an architect, Alfred’s father also opened a rifle shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. The rifle shop was a developing center and collaborated with the Russian government to assemble weapons as a means of war defense. His father’s background also influenced Alfred.
His father’s success led Alfred to train to be a chemist. Uniquely, he has not received formal education. He and his brother were privately educated at home. Alfred’s parents deliberately sent their children to home school with teachers competent in their fields.
Apart from that, he also studied the literature of European countries. Thanks to this he speaks fluent English, German and French. Long story short, in 1862, he experimented with the use of nitroglycerin to make explosive devices.
After making his first successful explosion in 1862, Alfred built a small factory in Helenborg, Sweden, to produce nitroglycerin. Unfortunately, nitroglycerin is very difficult to control. In 1862 the factory exploded killing several people.
This incident did not dampen Alfred’s enthusiasm. In the following months he built another nitroglycerin factory. In 1867, Alfred discovered a safer to control and relatively new material in the field of weapons, namely dynamite. He was later known as the inventor of dynamite used during the war.
Before he died on December 10, 1896, Alfred wrote a will. The will was dated November 27, 1895. The will stated that Alfred would leave 94% of his wealth to be given to people who had made important contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology, literature and peace. At that time, in Alfred’s will he had already thought about the concept of a Nobel Prize.
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Quoting Britannica.com, the first Nobel Prize was held only on December 10, 1901. This date was also chosen to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. In this first event, the Nobel Prize awarded prizes in five fields.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by the Dutchman Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff. In the Nobel Prize for Literature category, it was won by the Frenchman Sully Prudhomme; The Nobel Peace Prize was won by the Swiss Henri Dunant; The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to the German Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen who discovered X-ray technology; Finally, the Nobel Prize in Physiology was won by the German Emil von Behring.
These five fields are consistent in the Nobel Prize. However, in 1969, the number of Nobel Prize winners became six. The sixth field is economics. The addition of the Nobel Prize field was an initiative of the Swedish Central Bank which associated the Sveriges Riksbank Prize with the Nobel Prize.
Even the Nobel Prize has not been free from criticism and controversy throughout its history. Quoted from editorialge.com, the Nobel Prize has been criticized especially in the category of peace. Critics argue that decisions are often inconsistent with public opinion. Furthermore, critics have also criticized the Award Nobel Peace Prize which is often influenced by various non-technical factors external to the Nobel Prize committee.
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