Amazing Philanthropists: B1 - Jane Rollason

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1864 Alfred’s younger brother, Emil, was killed in an explosion, together with company workers. The family continued the business, while Alfred decided to set up his own company. He called it Nitroglycerin AB. 1865 He moved to Germany and set up the Alfred Nobel & Company factory near Hamburg. An enormous explosion destroyed his factory. He made a more stable explosive, which he named ‘dynamite’. 1866 He took his business to other countries, opening the United States Blasting Oil Company. 1871 He started a new business called the British Dynamite Company (later known as Nobel’s Explosives Company) at Ardeer in Scotland. 1873 Alfred moved to Paris, where he bought a large house and gardens, and set up another dynamite factory. 1876 He created a more powerful explosive called ‘gelignite’ which sold very well. 1876 He employed Bertha Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau as a secretary. He fell in love with her, but she returned to Vienna after a short time. 1879 He discovered that Bertha was engaged to be married to a man called Baron Arthur von Suttner. Arthur and Bertha married. Alfred and Bertha wrote letters to each other all their lives, and Alfred always listened to Bertha’s ideas on world peace. 1880 He joined his Swiss and Italian companies into one, and he continued to make a lot of money. 1885 He formed a group of German explosives companies. 1888 He saw a report of his own death in a Paris newspaper. It described him as ‘the man who sells death’. He saw himself through the world’s eyes and spent the next seven years thinking about his life. 1891 Alfred moved to San Remo, Italy. 1895 He announced his decision at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. His plan was to use most of his fortune to create five Nobel Prizes. The money still pays for the five prizes today, which are given for the best work in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace. 1896 Before the award of the first Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel died aged 63. 1901 The first Nobel Prizes were awarded. They are still given every year to men and women for excellent work.

       Andrew Carnegie

       1835–1919

      the businessman who built libraries for poor people

      In 1901, I became the richest man in the world. I had made my money from iron and steel. I did not want to be the world’s richest man when I died, however. So I decided to give all my money away.

      My story is about a poor boy who became a very rich man. I was born on 25th November 1835 in Scotland. My parents both came from working families who earned a living with their hands. My mother’s family were leather workers. My father made linen by hand. We lived in Dunfermline, a small Scottish town near Edinburgh, and life was not easy. My father had to work hard to earn enough money to buy food for us. He was angry that life was so difficult for working people and he joined a group called the ‘Chartists’. The Chartists were working men who wanted a better future.

      At that time, only rich men were able to vote or become Members of Parliament. The Chartists believed that all men should have a vote. They were also worried about safety at work. The Industrial Revolution was happening all across Europe at this time, and people were inventing bigger and better factory machines. Because the machines were new, however, they caused many accidents. The Chartists wanted factory owners to take better care of their workers. Many people in government believed that the Chartists were dangerous revolutionaries.

      Our house was a noisy house. My father and my Uncle Tom were always discussing politics. Uncle Tom did not like the queen or the church. My Uncle George loved Scotland, and often performed the poems of Robert Burns, Scotland’s most famous poet. I learned an important lesson from these noisy men. If you want to change things, you must have power. And to get power, you must have money.

      I had to leave school when I was only 11, so my education was short. I started learning my father’s trade. But some days there was no work, and the pay was terrible. Things got worse because factories were using machines to make cheap linen. Their linen was much cheaper than our linen which was made by hand.

      The year 1848 was a year of revolutions in Europe. The German philosopher Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto, and workers in many countries wanted to improve their lives. It was a year of change for our family too.

      My father came home one day and said that there was no more work. He said we had no choice – we must emigrate to the USA. Two of my mother’s sisters had already moved there. We sold our furniture, packed our few things and set off on a great adventure.

      The journey across the Atlantic was wonderful and terrible. I was 13 and very excited. But the sea was very rough and many of the passengers were sick. We had very little space or fresh air and the journey took 50 days. But we were the lucky ones. There were often fires on ships when they crossed the Atlantic in those days, and many people died at sea. We arrived in America on 5th July, and continued by train to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, where my aunts lived.

      My father and I found work in a clothes factory, and we lived in a small house that one of my aunts owned. I wasn’t able to go to school, so I had to teach myself in the evenings. We lived near a man with a large personal library, who allowed people to borrow his books. I always remembered his kindness.

      I worked all day in the factory. The pay was terrible, and I only earned $1.20 a week. Then I had some good luck. The Ohio Telegraph Company was advertising for young men to carry messages. In those days before the internet or even telephones, messages were sent by telegraph. I got the job and was very happy. Instead of spending all day in a dark and dirty factory, I could now enjoy being in the sun and fresh air. The pay was much better too. Suddenly I was earning $5 a week. I was on my way to a better life.

      There was another advantage too. Taking messages to the theatre was one of my regular jobs and I was allowed to stay and watch the plays. Often they performed Shakespeare which was an amazing experience for a young boy like me.

      For three years I worked at the Telegraph Company. I learned to use the telegraph machine, and soon I was sending and receiving messages. I was a quick and happy worker. Then I got a new job as secretary to Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Mr Scott became like a second father to me.

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