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the nobel foundation (nobelstiftelsen). 495
The Nobel Foundation (Nobelstiftelsen).
Tlie Nobel Foundation, established in pursuance of the provisions of the
will of Alfred Nobel, is one of the most magnificent that any country or
any time can show.
Alfred Nobel belonged to a family of inventors and financial magnates.
His father, Emanuel Kobel, born at Gävle in 1801, the inventor of nitro
glycerine and of submarine mines — was an engineering genius of the first
rank and exercised a vast activity both in Sweden and in Russia. Two of his
sons, Robert Hjalmar and Ludvig Imanuel, founded the naphtha industry in
Baku, one of the greatest and most successful enterprises known to the
industrial history of the nineteenth century. A third son, Alfred Nobel, who was
born in Stockholm in 1833 and died in 1896, was already known throughout
the world as the inventor of dynamite, when he made himself famous for all
time by the great donation which now bears his name.
According to his will, dated Nov. 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel bequeathed the
whole of his fortune (more than 30 million kronor) to a fund, the interest
of which shall be annually paid out to those who during the
immediately preceding years "have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
The interest is divided into five equal parts to be allotted as follows: "one
part to the person who shall have made the greatest discovery or invention
in the domain of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the
most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the
person who shall have made the most important discovery in the domain of
physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced
in the field of literature the most distinguished work of an idealistic
tendency; and one part to the person who shall have most or best promoted the
fraternity of nations and the abolition or diminution of standing armies,
and the formation and propagation of peace congresses". The prizes in
physics and chemistry are, awarded by the Academy of Sciences in
Stockholm; in physiology and medicine, by the Caroline Medico-Surgical
Institute in Stockholm; in litterature, by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm;
and for the work of peace, by a committee of five persons nominated by
the Norwegian Storthing.
The statutes of the Nobel Foundation, as also certain special rules
concerning the distribution of the prizes, were laid down by the
Government on June 29, 1900, with additions Aug. 12, 1910.
In accordance with these statutes the four above-mentioned institutions, as
distributors of the prizes, shall appoint, for two years at a time, fifteen
Delegates, the Academy of Sciences electing six, the other awarding bodies each electing
three. The delegates, who decide all matters connected with the auditing of the
accounts, for two years running appoint four members of the Board of the
Foundation, who shall meet in Stockholm and consist of Swedes; a fifth
member, who is Chairman of the Board, is nominated by Government. The
Board, which from its members shall elect a Managing Director, administers the
funds and other moneys of the foundation, as also other property belonging to
the foundation, in so far as it is common to the prize-groups.
30—133179. Sweden. 1.
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