Alfred Nobel was not healthy.
But he was alive.
And yet, the newspaper announced that he had died.
He got to read his own obituary even before he died.
The obituary described Alfred as the ‘merchant of death’. This disturbed Alfred.
He did not want to be remembered as the merchant of death.
What had happened was that Alfred’s brother had died. And the journalist had confused the two.
But the merchant of death’ tag seemed accurate – it was related to Alfred.
He decided to do something about it.
Alfred Nobel’s Invention
Alfred wanted to be a writer. But his father thought he would make a good scientist.
He was sent to intern with a famous chemist. There, he met Ascinio Sobrero, an Italian chemist.
Sobrero told him about something called nitroglycerine. It was a liquid that burnt ordinarily till about 220 deg Celsius.
But after that, it exploded unpredictably.
The liquid was not stable when faced with vigorous movements and shocks. Some shocks could cause it to explode.
This made transporting it very difficult. And what use is any explosive if you cannot transport it?
Still, Alfred saw great potential in this new chemical.
He suggested his father build a factory to make nitroglycerine. His father agreed.
Nitroglycerine was as dangerous as they thought — while setting up the plant, there was an explosion that killed one of Alfred’s brothers.
Nitroglycerine’s biggest challenge was that it was too sensitive to shock.
Alfred had wondered if it was possible to solidify the chemical. That would make it much more shock-resistant. It would allow for easier transport and wide-scale application of the explosive.
In 1867, he succeeded.
He stumbled upon a certain type of silica that he could mix with nitroglycerine. He created sticks of this mix.
These sticks had blasting caps on top of them. These blasting caps cause the entire stick to burst. Without that, the sticks would not burst.
These sticks were called dynamite.
World Changed
Dynamite changed the world very meaningfully.
Suddenly, a vast number of hills could be flattened — with far fewer workers.
Roads and railways construction got a giant boost. Mining became much much easier. The construction of dams picked up. Tunnel construction became a breeze.
Construction of any kind – that involved digging the ground or breaking rocks – became accelerated.
The Panama Canal – the canal that connected the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean would not have been possible without dynamite.
Alfred Nobel saw this monumental change take place in his life — all thanks to his invention of dynamite.
Military Use
The explosions were effective and efficient.
This inevitably attracted the military.
Soon, different countries’ armies started using dynamite.
Its ease of transporting, large explosive yield, and shock-proof nature made it an excellent weapon.
Dynamite soon came to be associated with wars. And wars kill people.
Alfred Nobel himself hated wars.
For him to be called the ‘merchant of death’ because of his invention was devastating.
He decided that upon his death, his fortune and wealth would be dedicated to science, literature, and peace.
This is how, today, we have the Nobel prizes for physics, chemistry, economics, literature, peace, and so on.
Dynamite was created with the intention of accelerating mining and operations. Its use cases continued to expand.
Alfred saw his invention being used for construction, mining, and sadly — military uses.
Expanded Use
But after he was gone, dynamite’s use expanded further.
Dynamite is also used for clearing avalanches from snow-clad mountains.
It is also used to increase the flow of crude oil in oil wells using a technique called ‘shooting oil wells’.
Other uses include using dynamite to control forest fires, undersea uses like demolition, and archaeological research.
When revolutionary technologies are invented, their best use cases often take decades to be found.
Dynamite continued to find new uses long after Alfred had died.
This can be seen in many other kinds of inventions.
The US military had developed the internet for communication between research institutions. That evolved to become the internet.
Internet — we’re still finding new use cases for the internet.
Same with GPS. Developed for military use initially.
Bubble wrap was originally made as a modern wallpaper for homes. Today, the packaging industry cannot survive without it.
The treadmill was invented as a punishment device for prisoners. Today, there is no gym without a treadmill.
Just because something has been invented/discovered, does not mean its potential is over.
Often, the most revolutionary applications are yet to come.
AI & LLMs
Today, we are seeing the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs).
They are not exactly new.
In some form or the other, they have existed for a long time.
The earliest forms of this were seen in suggestions — when you typed to search something on Google, it would try to complete the suggestion.
That had been around for many years.
Then, over the last few years, we saw chatbots.
Many times, when we try to raise a complaint with a company’s customer support, the chat is handled by an AI model.
These would be capable of handling very basic tasks.
And now, we are seeing the same chatbots – but in a much more evolved form.
They are much more capable and knowledgeable.
These LLM models (like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc) are able to ‘talk’ to users about many topics.
Roughly speaking, they seem like advanced versions of using Google search.
But that’s the first step LLMs are taking.
Think about how the internet started.
We started with websites. And then something like a search engine happened. Emails. Video calling.
Then social media. Then, you could shop online and call a cab!
Today, you can get a packet of chips delivered to you in 10 mins.
Seen from that prism, we are only getting started with LLMs.
Lots of new opportunities will arise.
Many companies will be born. Many will die.
Businesses we have not even imagined yet will be born.
The images above were generated using AI tools.
Quick Takes
+Under the Union Budget 2025, there will be no personal income tax on taxpayers earning up to Rs 12 lakh per annum.
+India’s infrastructure output rose 4% year-on-year in Dec 2024 (vs 4.3% in Nov).
+India’s forex reserves rose $5.5 billion to $629.56 billion in the week that ended on 24 Jan.
+The US Fed has kept its interest rate unchanged at 4.5% after its January meeting.
+Tata Steel became the first Indian company to develop pipes for transporting 100% pure gaseous hydrogen under high pressure.
+ITC Hotels shares were listed on the stock markets on 29 January.
+India remained the top recipient of remittances globally in 2024. It received around $129 billion.
+L&T received a Rs 1,000-2,500 crore order to build a 10 MW AI-enabled data centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
+JSW Group will invest Rs 2,600 crore in the copper mining business. The company won a 20-year contract from Hindustan Copper for 2 mines in Jharkhand.
6-Day-Course
Theme of the week: most important indices
We’ve reached the end of this week’s course that started on Monday. Here’s a test you should take. Get pen and paper!
Question 1:
Which index tracks smaller US-based companies?
-DAX
-CAC 40
-Russell 2000
Question 2:
The MSCI All-Country World Index (ACWI) tracks only developed countries.
-True
-False
Question 3:
Which index is mostly comprised of tech companies?
-Nasdaq
-FTSE 100
-Euro Stoxx 50
Question 4:
Nikkei 225 is the first major stock market index to open daily due to its time zone.
-True
-False
Question 5:
Which index represents the Chinese stock market?
-FTSE 100
-Hang Seng Index
-Shanghai Composite
Answers:
Q1: Russell 2000
Q2: False
Q3: Nasdaq
Q4: True
Q5: Shanghai Composite
The information contained in this Groww Digest is purely for knowledge. This Groww Digest does not contain any recommendations or advice.
Team Groww Digest