Speaker 1: In April eighteen eighty eight, the French newspaper Le Figaro
Speaker 1: ran an obituary. It read, a man who cannot very
Speaker 1: easily pass for a benefactor of humanity died yesterday in Cohn.
Speaker 1: It was mister Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Another newspaper
Speaker 1: reportedly proclaimed the merchant of Death is dead. In fact,
Speaker 1: Alfred Nobele wasn't dead. The obituary was a mistake, but
Speaker 1: it gave him the chance few people get to see
Speaker 1: how the world regards their legacy, and it may have
Speaker 1: inspired him to reinvent his Welcome to a special bonus
Speaker 1: episode of Flashback, I'm Shan Braswell to day, a story
Speaker 1: about another fateful moment from history. The premature obituary that
Speaker 1: may have launched the most illustrious prizes on the globe,
Speaker 1: a journalistic air that may have prompted one hell of
Speaker 1: a correction. It was no accident that Alfred Nobel became
Speaker 1: an inventor and an explosives expert. His father had been
Speaker 1: the same thing. He'd run armaments factories and built underwater
Speaker 1: mines for Russia during the Crimean War. Born in eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty three in Stockholm, Sweden. Young Alfred never earned a
Speaker 1: degree or attended college, but in addition to absorbing his
Speaker 1: father's knowledge of explosives, he traveled widely, learned several languages,
Speaker 1: and trained under a world renowned chemist in Paris. At
Speaker 1: the age of twenty four, he obtained his first patent,
Speaker 1: the first of more than three hundred and fifty he
Speaker 1: would earn in his life. Nobel's biggest breakthroughs came when
Speaker 1: he successfully harnessed the destructive power of nitroglystd. It was
Speaker 1: a key ingredient in his most famous invention, dynamite. Nobel
Speaker 1: was a workaholic. He never married. He once wrote, my
Speaker 1: only wish is to devote myself to my action to science.
Speaker 1: I look upon all women, young and old, as disturbing
Speaker 1: invaders who steal my time. Maybe not quite all women.
Speaker 1: He had a twenty year friendship with his former secretary,
Speaker 1: a peace activist named birth of On Sittner. More on
Speaker 1: her in a minute. Nobel's devotion to his work paid off.
Speaker 1: He eventually presided over more than ninety labs and factories
Speaker 1: and over twenty different countries across the world. He also
Speaker 1: once observed, I have two advantageous over competitors. Both moneymaking
Speaker 1: and praise leave me utterly unmoved. But there was something
Speaker 1: that may have left Nobel profoundly affected. Being pronounced dead
Speaker 1: and criticized for his impact on humanity. The press had
Speaker 1: actually confused the death of Nobel's older brother Ludwig from
Speaker 1: tuberculosis with the inventors. That's what afforded Nobel the rare
Speaker 1: opportunity to read his own obituary. According to biographer kin Font,
Speaker 1: Nobel quote became so obsessed with his posthumous reputation that
Speaker 1: he rewrote his last will, bequeathing most of his fortune
Speaker 1: to a cause upon which no future obituary writer would
Speaker 1: be able to cast dispersions. So in November, the inventor
Speaker 1: sat down at a desk in the Swedish Norwegian Club
Speaker 1: in Paris, and, in handwritten Swedish, with no help from
Speaker 1: a lawyer, penned a four page document that would become
Speaker 1: one of the most notable last will and testaments in history.
Speaker 1: I the undassigned Alfred Bernard Nobel, after mature deliberation, hereby
Speaker 1: declare the following to be my last villain testament. After
Speaker 1: disposing of property items to his friends and family, he
Speaker 1: ordered that the bulk of his estate be invested, and
Speaker 1: the interest on which is to be distributed annually as
Speaker 1: prices to those who, during the preceding year have conferred
Speaker 1: the greatest benefit to human kind. Nobel died the following year,
Speaker 1: and the Nobel Prizes were handed out for the first
Speaker 1: time in nineteen o one. To this day, the awards
Speaker 1: are given every December tenth, the anniversary of his death,
Speaker 1: including most recently in Today, we are celebrating the Nobel
Speaker 1: Laureates and their outstanding achievements in science, literature, and peace.
Speaker 1: Their impressive accomplishments are the result of the innovative ideas
Speaker 1: and hard work, and served as inspiration to us all.
Speaker 1: That is what Alfred Mabel wanted with his price, true
Speaker 1: to his wishes. Almost no one today associates the name
Speaker 1: Alfred Noble with dynamite or death. It's a great story
Speaker 1: of mistaken identity and the power of reinvention. But was
Speaker 1: an erroneous obituary alone harsh enough to prompt the inventor
Speaker 1: to take his life in a new direction. It remains
Speaker 1: an open question. Some scholars believe that it was more
Speaker 1: likely Nobel's friendship with his friend and former Secretary Birtha
Speaker 1: von Suttner that inspired his late life transformation. Nobel did
Speaker 1: not leave von Suttn or anything in his will, but
Speaker 1: the activists became the first woman ever to win the
Speaker 1: Nobel Peace Prize, in a legacy that doubtless would have
Speaker 1: made Alfred Nobel proud if he'd lived to read her obituary.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and please stay tuned to this feed
Speaker 1: for more bonus episodes on fateful moments from history in
Speaker 1: the weeks ahead. Flashback is written and hosted by me
Speaker 1: Sean Braswell, senior writer and Executive producer at Ozzie. It
Speaker 1: was edited by Maeve mcgarren and produced by Tracy Mraan.
Speaker 1: Chris Hoff engineered our show. Make sure to subscribe to
Speaker 1: Flashback on the I Heart Radio app or listen wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.