Alfred Nobel, the creator of the Nobel Peace Prize, may be associated with peace and unity today, but in the 1900s, his name was associated with violence and destruction.
After Mr. Nobel's brother was killed in an 1864 explosion, he researched safer, more stable explosive alternatives. This led him to invent dynamite. Nobel's innovative weapon earned him a large fortune, which he used to fund the Nobel Peace Prize. It is rumored that he created the award in atonement for his invention.
Nobel never meant for his creation to be an accelerator of war, in fact, he believed it would do the opposite:
"Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses: on the day that two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all civilised nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops."
Nobel never lived to see World War I and exactly how wrong he was.
