Two wills of "The Richest Tramp in Europe"

The "Nobel safety explosives" invented by the Swedish chemist Nobel (1833-1896) were widely used in industry and national defense, which brought epoch-making changes to the backward productive forces of the old era, and his invention also brought him huge wealth. Since the early 1870s, he has run a company in more than 20 countries in Europe and the United States, with 355 patents, which has made him an internationally renowned millionaire.

But Nobel did not indulge in material pleasures and the well-being of life. Busy with his career, he was forty-three years old when he first fell in love, and because of the misfortunes of love and marriage, he never established a family in his life. He has established his own laboratories in many countries, but his own housing is not luxurious, and he does not even have a fixed home. As a result, he was called "the richest tramp in Europe".

Three years before his death, he proposed that a portion of his property be awarded as a bonus, awarded every five years to those who were most active in promoting peace and to those who had made outstanding contributions to the cause of science. Before his death, he converted his fixed assets in various countries into funds, leaving only a small part to relatives and friends, and most of the rest to the Swedish Academy of Sciences. In accordance with his will, the Swedish Academy of Sciences established the Nobel Prize Committee. Bonuses of up to $40,000 are awarded annually to those who have made outstanding contributions. Some people think: "Human society has 'stepped into the *space age' from the atomic age, and the Nobel Prize should have a credit for it!"

In his later years, Nobel was tormented by rheumatism and heart disease, and the heart area was often painful. In order to enable the medical community to understand the cause of the heart pain and to save future generations from heart disease, he made another will in 1895, the year before his death, which included the following passage:

"I do wish that after I die, I will dissect the veins and blood vessels, so that doctors can find out the cause of the death, and then cremate the body."

Nobel is famous for the great progress his inventions brought to human society, as well as the "Nobel Prize" named after him.