Alfred Bernard Nobel, a Swedish inventor and philanthropist, was born at Stockholm in 1833, and died in 1896. He was a student of the distinguished John Ericsson: he was educated in St. Petersburg, and studied mechanical engineering in the United States: he was granted patents by the United States on nitroglycerin and dynamite: his patents were very numerous, there being filed in Great Britain one hundred and twenty-nine. In 1875, he controlled fifteen dynamite factories in different parts of the world. He is best known by his will in which he founded the Nobel Prize Fund of $9,200,000, reduced by taxation to $8,400,000, the interest on which is annually divided into five equal parts, and awarded as prizes to the person who shall have made, (1) the most important invention or discovery in the domain of physics, (2) in chemistry, (3) in physiology or medicine, (4) who shall have produced in the field of literature the most distinguished work of an idealistic tendency, and, (5) who shall have most or best promoted the interest of universal peace.
The first four prizes are awarded by the academies of Sweden, and the fifth by the Norwegian Storthing (Parliament). The value of each prize is about $38,000; the right to make nominations is bestowed upon members of corresponding academies of other countries, professors holding proper chairs in Scandinavian and foreign universities, recipients of Nobel prizes, and other persons of distinction. The plan of award is that the prizes shall go to those persons who shall have contributed most materially to benefit mankind during the year immediately preceding. The stipulation that the award should be for achievements of the preceding year has been, to a large extent, disregarded, and in many instances the award is the result of the life work of the recipient.
Spiteful Wills
Mr. Russell, in his work, “Seeing and Hearing,” says: “Wills which, by rehearsing and revoking previous bequests, mortify the survivors when the testator is no longer in a position to do so viva voce, form a very curious branch of the subject. Lord Kew was a very wealthy peer of strict principles and peculiarly acrid temper, and, having no wife or children to annoy, he ‘took it out,’ as the saying is, on his brothers, nephews, and other expectant kinsfolk. One gem from his collection I recall, in some such words as these: ‘By a previous will I had left fifty thousand pounds to my brother John; but, as he has sent his son to Oxford instead of Cambridge, contrary to my expressed wish, I reduce the legacy to five hundred pounds.’ May the earth lie light on that benevolent old despot!”
A Jilted Lover’s Will
Dr. Forbes (Benignus) Winslow, though of New England stock, was born in London. He studied medicine in New York and afterward at the Royal College of Surgeons. He made a specialty of the treatment of insanity after locating in London, and became noted as an alienist and was at one time President of the Medical Society of London. He reports the following very singular will:
“A certain individual, who having been crossed in love, concluded to end an unhappy and disappointing life, ordered his body to be boiled down, and all the fat to be extracted therefrom to be used in making a candle, which was to be presented to the object of his affections, together with a letter containing his adieus and expressions of undying love. The time chosen for the delivery of the candle and the letter was at night, in order that the lady might read the touching lines by this veritable ‘Corpse Candle.’” The will, the learned Dr. Winslow tells us, was literally carried out.
Will of Frederic Gebhard
Frederic Gebhard, once the favorite of the stage and of society, with an income of $100,000 a year, a private car, and blooded horses and dogs, left an estate valued at less than $10,000. His will, making no mention of his widow, was filed September 21st, 1910, in the Surrogate’s office of New York.
Gebhard died at Garden City on September 8th last. His will provides that his entire estate shall be given to his sister, Mrs. Mary Isabel Neilson, who is the mother-in-law of Reginald Vanderbilt.