Alfred Nobel is best known for inventing dynamite , along with several other powerful explosives such as improved detonators, gelignite, and ballistite, and for later founding the Nobel Prizes.

What did Nobel invent?

  • Nobel’s most famous invention is dynamite, patented in 1867, which made the highly unstable liquid nitroglycerin much safer and easier to handle for use in construction and mining.
  • Before dynamite, he invented an improved detonator or blasting cap (around 1865), which allowed explosives to be ignited more reliably.
  • He later created gelignite (also called blasting gelatin) in the 1870s, which was more powerful and stable than dynamite.
  • Nobel also patented other explosives and propellants, such as ballistite, an early smokeless powder used as a propellant.

These inventions made large-scale mining, tunneling, and railroad and canal building much more efficient in the late 19th century.