St. Nicholas/Volume 40/Number 9/Nobel Prizes
 Photograph by Underwood & Underwood. |
THE NOBEL PRIZES BY DOROTHY DUDLEY LEAL |
The great problem of making war against war with a few peace prizes has been likened to fighting a city fire with a bottle of rose-water.
There are to-day sixteen million armed men in Europe, and great fleets of fighting ships upon the seas, while billions in money are spent each year to maintain them; as against alt this, there are a dozen or so Swedish gentlemen, gathered together to divide annually two hundred thousand dollars among five men who have earned recognition in one of five ways. There seems to be a hopeless inequality between the two forces; but time must prove whether these efforts, instituted by Alfred Nobel, shall be successful.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1833. Emmanuel Nobel, his father, was an architect, of an inventive turn of mind, While Alfred was still very young, the family removed to St. Petersburg, where his father established torpedo-works, and, in the service of the Russian Government, at the time of the Crimean War, placed submarine mines in the harbor of Kronstadt, with the assistance of one of his sons, Robert. Three yeers after peace was made, in 1859, Emmanuel Nobel returned to Sweden, with his family, leaving his second son, Ludwig, in charge of the St. Petersburg factory. Several years before this, however, Alfred, leaving his family in St. Petersburg, had come to the United States, where, from 1850 to 1854, he studied mechanical engineering with his famous fellow-countryman, John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor.
For two years following the return of the family to Sweden, Alfred studied explosives with his father, and, in 1862, was the first manufacturer to produce nitroglycerin in large quantities. Two years later, his factory was destroyed by an explosion. The following year, however, he built another at Krümmel, on the Elbe, which is now the largest manufactory of explosives on the Continent.
In the factory which he built in Hamburg, he discovered, by accident, a new compound, which he called dynamite. It could not be exploded, like nitroglycerin, by shock, but only with a powerful detonator fixed in it with a fuse, This discovery revolulionized mining and engineering methods, and made possible the construction of our own Panama Canal and other important works of our time; while the manufacture of nitroglycerin in its various forms became a great industry, From this point his business prospered. In a comparatively short time, he formed one company in Sweden, two in Belgium, three in France, and three in the United States. and a factory was started in Scotland, which is now the largest of its kind in the world.
He generally chose his own countrymen for responsible positions, and among the vast army of workmen whom he employed, and with whom he was very generous, it is reported that he never had a strike. He was often spoken of as “Nobel by name; noble by nature.”
To know Nobel and to talk with him was intense enjoyment. as his conversational powers were remarkable. But distrusting himself, he was bashful to the point of timidity, and held himself aloof from social life. No one ever knew what he spent on charities, since he gave in secrecy.
What excitement there must have been when Alfred Nobel’s will was made public, in 1896!
It declared that a portion of the estate, a sum about $7,500,000, should constitute a fund, the interest of which should be divided annually into five prizes of $40,000 each, to be given to those persons who, during the preceding year, had done most for humanity. These prizes should be as follows First, to the person who made the most important discovery in the department of physics; second, to the person who made the most important discovery in chemistry; third, to the person who caused the greatest advance in medicine fourth, to the person who produced the most excellent work of an idealistic tendency; last, to the person who had accomplished most in the abolition of armies and the promotion of peace.
Three corporations were chosen to award the Nobel prizes and appoint the Electoral Committee. The Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm should give the chemistry prize; the Swedish Academy, Stockholm, the literary reward; and the Caroline Institute of Medicine and Surgery, Stockholm, the prizes for physics and medicine. To the Norwegian Storthing, or Parliament, was given the right to appoint the Peace Committee.
For admission to the competition, the candidate must be proposed by qualified members. This right to present such persons belongs to members of the Swedish Academy, the French Academy, the Spanish Academy, to members of literary departments of other academies, to professors of literature and history in universities, and to such learned men as the committee may invite.
In place of one person, the honor may be bestowed upon a society; or it may be kept back entirely, but each prize must be given once in every five years. Besides the cash prize, each winner receives a diploma and a gold medal bearing a portrait of Alfred Nobel.
The prizes are a real factor in increasing the dignity of a scientific career, and in encouraging such work. The money value is large, but the fame attached to the honor is all but priceless.
In spite of Swedish proclivities, it seems that Nobel bestowed a special honor on the Parliament at Christiania because it was the first official body to attempt an international peace union. The peace prize has most attracted the attention of the world.
There is a Board of Administration composed of five Swedish members, the president of which is named by the king. These men are elected for the term of two years, commencing May 1. This committee manages the fund, pays the prizes and all expenses attending their distribution. The final votes for each award are taken by these men in secret.
On December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of the donor’s death, the names of those first honored were made known. The king delivered the awards at an impressive ceremony.
Of the sixty-five prizes that have been given so far, only two have been awarded to Americans. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt won the prize for his services in bringing about peace peace between Japan and Russia. Professor Michelson, of Chicago, received the other prize, for finding the wave-length of light. Three women have been honored by a Nobel prize, Mme. Curie, Baroness von Suttner, and Selma Lagerlof.
What Mr. Carnegie called the “two foulest blots” on our nineteenth century were slavery and war. Slavery has been abolished; war remains. It is a significant fact that the two greatest books written on these subjects were novels by two women—“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and “Lay down your Arms,” by Baroness Bertha von Sutter.
Only the mere outline of her life can be given here. Bertha Kinsky was born at Prague in 1843, and is a descendant of a long and distinguished Austrian military family. As a young woman, she resolved to support herself, and obtained a position as instructor to four daughters in the home of Baron von Suttner, in Vienna. She held the position of secretary to Alfred Nobel shortly after this, and helped him in his work until her marriage to Arthur von Suttner. “Lay down your Arms” had already made the baroness known throughout Europe. She organized, nearly twenty years ago, the first Austrian peace society, and she became one of the editors of the leading Austrian peace organ; this brought her into contact with the greatest writers and peace advocates of the world. During this period, she had continued her correspondence with Alfred Nobel. It was she who suggested to him the founding of the great yearly prizes which bear his name, Later she, herself, was crowned with the Nobel peace prize. As yet, she is the only woman who has received it. Since the death of her husband, she is still carrying on the great work to which they were devoted.
We have stated that the clauses in Alfred Nobel’s will are not really opposed to the work that he carried on during his lifetime. Men were but too ready to buy his death-dealing explosives; they thought only to hold their own, thereby, against their enemies. Nations wasted millions of dollars in this way. Alfred Nobel used the money so gained as a rebuke to their distrust of each other, and to establish the truthfulness of Milton's line:
Peace hath her victories no less renown'd than war.