Ascanio Sobrero

Ascanio Sobrero

Ascanio Sobrero (born October 12, 1812 in Casale Monferrato , † May 26, 1888 in Turin ) was an Italian chemist and discoverer of nitroglycerin .

He was assistant to the Parisian chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze , then professor of chemistry in Turin .

His teacher Pelouze had already experimented with the gun cotton discovered by Christian Friedrich Schönbein . He discovered nitroglycerin while continuing such experiments with gun cotton by nitrating glycerin and first called it "pyroglycerin". In his experiments with nitroglycerin, he suffered severe facial injuries and therefore considered the explosives too dangerous for practical use. In fact, he was so intimidated by his own invention that he kept it a secret for a year. He therefore spoke out vehemently against commercial use in private letters and newspaper articles (and also warned researchers to deal with it), as was done by his student Alfred Nobel .

After the success of the dynamite invented by Nobel , Sobrero felt cheated of fame and financial success. Nobel cited him as the inventor of nitroglycerin and made him a lifelong payment. However, this was in no relation to the immense funds that Nobel received with Sobrero's invention. In addition, as was the case with Nobel later, there were scruples about the devastating effects of his invention.