Документы жизни и деятельности семьи Нобель том 2 - Мелуа А.И
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Further a short article from the «Mountain Magazine» (1865) named «Nobel Oil for explosions» is published. It includes information about nitroglycerin tests not far from Hamburg. Nobel’s oil is more powerful than gunpowder. Nobel the inventor tried to spread Swedish experience of nitroglycerin application to other countries. However the results of experiments in Gartsev mines were not impressive and the Mining Administration was planning new experiments.
In 1865, in the next issue of the same magazine it was told about new experiments of Alfred Nobel and his letter sent to the French Academy of Sciences. Experiments in Altenberg mine not far from Aachen gave good results. Nitroglycerin was offered for mining and military science. Alfred Nobel’s calculations, which demonstrate high efficiency of nitroglycerin application, were also published.
The Mining Journal continued to follow Alfred Nobel’s work and in 1865 published more information about nitroglycerin application. There was the description of the device offered by Alfred for securing the safety of workers. At the same time there was information about toxicity of nitroglycerin and its harmful effect on people. In 1867 the magazine published a Russian translation of a big Alfred Nobel’s article, in which he described methods of nitroglycerin application. It’s remarkable that the start of kerosene and various oils use for lubrication of mechanisms in America is discussed in the same issue. The oil topic will soon become one of the principal ones for Nobel Brothers Petroleum Producing Company.
In 1868 The Mining Journal published an article about dynamite. It was said that Nobel worked at some new explosive, which would have no flaws of nitroglycerine. At the same time the new explosive was to be very powerful. The substance was called dynamite, its composition was kept in secret. The method of dynamite blasting is described in detail. There are examples of the
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useful dynamite application. Nobel sold dynamite in barrels, 50 pounds each. The price of dynamite was 2 Francs per pound. The capsule invented by Nobel was paid for additionally.
Ludvig Nobel’s paper on protective shields for infantry explains how to protect soldiers from rifle shots. This invention appeared after battle experience in Russo-Turkish War. Rapid-firing rifles were used in battles. Shots from Turkish rifles hit targets a verst (3500 feet) away. As the Nobel Family was a big contractor of the Russian War Office, there were not only rifles and cannons offered, but protective shields as well. According to statistics, 95 per cent of the dead were killed by rifle shots. The rest 5 per cent of the dead were killed by artillery shots and cold steel. This data shows the importance of protective shields.
Publication of the feature story about a hospital for the wounded of the lowest ranks is dedicated to the later period of World War I. In 1914 Nobel Brothers Petroleum Producing Company set up a hospital in Petrograd. The experience of treatment arrangement and the hospital structure are described in detail, there is also statistics of the rehabilitation process. The reminiscences have been preserved thanks to Martha Ludvigovna Nobel-Oleinikova, who was the senior doctor at the hospital.
Martha Nobel-Oleinikova’s article about Elton lake mud cure of the wounded and sick is dedicated to the same subject.
There are several buildings preserved on the territory of the country estate in the Leningrad Region, which was owned by the Nobel-Oleinikovs. Peter Oleinikov, who lives in Stockholm, visited the site of late. Local municipality arranges work for preserving of the historical objects connected with the Nobel-Oleinikovs.
The Regulations of the Ludvig Nobel machine building plant (the original was published in 1912) show excellent management of production and the long way covered by the plant since its foundation. The founder of the plant was Emanuel Ludvigovich Nobel (son of Ludvig Nobel). The fixed capital stock was 4 million Roubles divided into 8 thousand shares.
The plant operated successfully in Soviet times. However in the end of the 1990s the production was for the most part curtailed because of the economic crisis in Russia.
There is a house on the territory of the plant, which belonged to Ludvig Nobel (Vyborgskaya embankment, 19). The interiors and some historical objects have been partly preserved. Unfortunately the house is seriously damaged and cannot be visited at present.
In 1991 a memorial plate to commemorate Alfred Nobel was opened opposite the house, on the other side of the Neva River, paid for by the International Fundation of History of Science (A.I. Melua is the President of the Fund). There had been a house and an office of the Nobels approximately in the same place when they had just moved from Stockholm to St. Petersburg. The memorial plate was designed on the initiative of diplomat Tomas Bertelman with the participation of his colleague Dag Ahlander. The management of Nobel Fund and Sven Nobel (the Head of Nobel Family Society) often came to Leningrad and worked with members of the committee that judged the designs of the first Nobel memorial in the USSR. The memorial plate was opened in October, 1991. The President of Nobel Fund academician L. Gyllensten, executive director M. Sohlman, Russian, Azerbaidzhanian and Swedish scientists took part in the opening ceremony.
