The prizes and the man

Swedish businessman and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, in his will signed in 1895, set up a number of prizes awarded each year that have become some of the most prestigious in the world. The following are some facts about the man and the prizes.

Swedish businessman and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, in his will signed in 1895, set up a number of prizes awarded each year that have become some of the most prestigious in the world. The following are some facts about the man and the prizes:

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The prizes

-- Nobel said in his will the prizes should be given to people "who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

-- He ordered that most of his estate of 31 million Swedish crowns at the time should be converted into a fund and invested in safe securities.

-- The first prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel's death in San Remo, Italy.

-- His will gave five categories for prizes: physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace. A sixth prize, the Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968.

-- The winners get 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.45 million), either individually or shared, though no more than three people are allowed to share.

The man

-- As well as being an inventor and businessman, Nobel dabbled in writing plays and poetry. The following are the opening lines of his "Night Thoughts":

"The solemn silence of the midnight hour
Unchains the fettered spirit, and the power
Of Reasoning takes a visionary flight
Beyond the limits of detective sight,
Which may deceive us, yet attracts the soul
Even with its wild and daring uncontrol."

-- Nobel never married and was continually on the road. French writer Victor Hugo called him "Europe's richest vagabond".

-- He once described himself in this way: "Pathetic half life, should have been suffocated by a humane doctor as he sobbingly made his entry into life ... His only request: not to be buried alive."