WEBVTT - Bonus Episode 3: The Newspaper Error That Sparked the Nobel Prize 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.080 In April eighteen eighty eight, the French newspaper Le Figaro 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.840 ran an obituary. It read, a man who cannot very 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:12.119 easily pass for a benefactor of humanity died yesterday in Cohn. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:17.160 It was mister Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Another newspaper 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:24.000 reportedly proclaimed the merchant of Death is dead. In fact, 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.080 Alfred Nobele wasn't dead. The obituary was a mistake, but 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.760 it gave him the chance few people get to see 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.559 how the world regards their legacy, and it may have 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:42.320 inspired him to reinvent his Welcome to a special bonus 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.840 episode of Flashback, I'm Shan Braswell to day, a story 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.920 about another fateful moment from history. The premature obituary that 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.879 may have launched the most illustrious prizes on the globe, 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.920 a journalistic air that may have prompted one hell of 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:02.480 a correction. It was no accident that Alfred Nobel became 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.280 an inventor and an explosives expert. His father had been 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:09.560 the same thing. He'd run armaments factories and built underwater 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.240 mines for Russia during the Crimean War. Born in eighteen 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.800 thirty three in Stockholm, Sweden. Young Alfred never earned a 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.399 degree or attended college, but in addition to absorbing his 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.920 father's knowledge of explosives, he traveled widely, learned several languages, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:30.400 and trained under a world renowned chemist in Paris. At 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.920 the age of twenty four, he obtained his first patent, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.200 the first of more than three hundred and fifty he 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.479 would earn in his life. Nobel's biggest breakthroughs came when 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:49.000 he successfully harnessed the destructive power of nitroglystd. It was 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.560 a key ingredient in his most famous invention, dynamite. Nobel 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.320 was a workaholic. He never married. He once wrote, my 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.320 only wish is to devote myself to my action to science. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.680 I look upon all women, young and old, as disturbing 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:10.080 invaders who steal my time. Maybe not quite all women. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.799 He had a twenty year friendship with his former secretary, 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.080 a peace activist named birth of On Sittner. More on 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.639 her in a minute. Nobel's devotion to his work paid off. 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.280 He eventually presided over more than ninety labs and factories 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.680 and over twenty different countries across the world. He also 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:32.040 once observed, I have two advantageous over competitors. Both moneymaking 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:38.360 and praise leave me utterly unmoved. But there was something 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:42.000 that may have left Nobel profoundly affected. Being pronounced dead 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.800 and criticized for his impact on humanity. The press had 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.840 actually confused the death of Nobel's older brother Ludwig from 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.880 tuberculosis with the inventors. That's what afforded Nobel the rare 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.600 opportunity to read his own obituary. According to biographer kin Font, 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.960 Nobel quote became so obsessed with his posthumous reputation that 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.280 he rewrote his last will, bequeathing most of his fortune 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.880 to a cause upon which no future obituary writer would 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:17.360 be able to cast dispersions. So in November, the inventor 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.160 sat down at a desk in the Swedish Norwegian Club 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.359 in Paris, and, in handwritten Swedish, with no help from 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.360 a lawyer, penned a four page document that would become 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.359 one of the most notable last will and testaments in history. 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:35.960 I the undassigned Alfred Bernard Nobel, after mature deliberation, hereby 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.840 declare the following to be my last villain testament. After 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.840 disposing of property items to his friends and family, he 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.800 ordered that the bulk of his estate be invested, and 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.600 the interest on which is to be distributed annually as 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.880 prices to those who, during the preceding year have conferred 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:59.880 the greatest benefit to human kind. Nobel died the following year, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.320 and the Nobel Prizes were handed out for the first 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.520 time in nineteen o one. To this day, the awards 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.600 are given every December tenth, the anniversary of his death, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:14.040 including most recently in Today, we are celebrating the Nobel 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:18.880 Laureates and their outstanding achievements in science, literature, and peace. 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:25.200 Their impressive accomplishments are the result of the innovative ideas 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.279 and hard work, and served as inspiration to us all. 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.800 That is what Alfred Mabel wanted with his price, true 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.720 to his wishes. Almost no one today associates the name 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:44.000 Alfred Noble with dynamite or death. It's a great story 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.520 of mistaken identity and the power of reinvention. But was 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.080 an erroneous obituary alone harsh enough to prompt the inventor 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.920 to take his life in a new direction. It remains 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.599 an open question. Some scholars believe that it was more 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.960 likely Nobel's friendship with his friend and former Secretary Birtha 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.680 von Suttner that inspired his late life transformation. Nobel did 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.000 not leave von Suttn or anything in his will, but 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.440 the activists became the first woman ever to win the 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:13.599 Nobel Peace Prize, in a legacy that doubtless would have 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.960 made Alfred Nobel proud if he'd lived to read her obituary. 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.679 Thanks for listening, and please stay tuned to this feed 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.760 for more bonus episodes on fateful moments from history in 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.839 the weeks ahead. Flashback is written and hosted by me 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.880 Sean Braswell, senior writer and Executive producer at Ozzie. It 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.000 was edited by Maeve mcgarren and produced by Tracy Mraan. 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.560 Chris Hoff engineered our show. Make sure to subscribe to 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.719 Flashback on the I Heart Radio app or listen wherever 0:05:46.760 --> 0:06:05.240 you get your podcasts.