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The challenge of implementing Nobel’s will fell to his two designated executors.

As Executors of my testamentary dispositions, I hereby appoint Mr Ragnar Sohlman, resident at Bofors, Värmland, and Mr Rudolf Lilljequist, 31 Malmskillnadsgatan, Stockholm, and at Bengtsfors near Uddevalla. To compensate for their pains and attention, I grant to Mr Ragnar Sohlman, who will presumably have to devote most time to this matter, One Hundred Thousand Crowns, and to Mr Rudolf Lilljequist, Fifty Thousand Crowns.

Nobel had only recently met Rudolf Lilljeqvist, a Swedish civil engineer, in May of 1895. Their initial discussions had revolved around the electrolytic decomposition of salt. Nobel and Lilljeqvist developed an instant rapport, likely due to a shared antipathy towards lawyers.^fn9 Years of litigation involving alleged patent infringements, charges of industrial espionage, and a series of wrongful death lawsuits had left Nobel with a fierce aversion to those in the legal profession. Lilljeqvist was equally wary, a victim of incompetent lawyers who had undermined his previous efforts to court potential investors. After only three months of congenial negotiations, conducted without legal advice, Nobel agreed to fund Lilljeqvist’s proposal to establish an electrochemical plant in Bengtsfors, a village in north-west Sweden. Nobel had obviously been deeply impressed with Lilljeqvist, and despite their brief acquaintance, had developed an immediate confidence in his new partner’s acumen and ethical principles.

Although Lilljeqvist subsequently declined Nobel’s invitation to take up a well-paid managerial position at a weapons foundry (AB Bofors, see here), the two men engaged in a second collaboration just prior to Nobel’s death. The impetus was the unpredictable and explosive nature of nitroglycerine at temperatures higher than 180 degrees Celsius. As the chemical production of nitroglycerine created heat, the temperature of the nitration vats within Nobel’s factories required careful monitoring. In practical terms, this meant that one employee was assigned the task of staring at a thermometer throughout the production process. Not surprisingly, the hypnotic nature of the activity frequently induced sleep, and lethal gaffes were prevalent.

In an effort to reduce fatalities, Nobel had first mandated that the relevant workers must complete their shifts without shoes and wearing only a single sock. The principle was simple: Nobel knew from the privations of his early childhood that it was impossible to fall asleep if one foot was colder than the other. It was only upon learning that this prescription contravened nascent employee safety regulations that Nobel rescinded the directive. To gain a first-hand impression of the inherent challenge, Nobel then joined his own labour force. Struggling to stay alert during one shift, an exhausted Nobel realised that it would require a high degree of wakefulness for a worker to remain upright while seated on an unstable surface; should a worker still manage to fall asleep, there would be an obligatory tumble and abrupt arousal. Nobel subsequently conceived of the exact solution – the one-legged stool – while enduring the last act of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Nobel patented his invention and Lilljeqvist undertook its manufacture. Despite worker protests, the one-legged wooden stool became an immediate and effective industry standard.^fn10

Figure 4. Rudolf Lilljeqvist.

The other executor appointed in Nobel’s will was Ragnar Sohlman. In contrast to his purely professional relationship with Lilljeqvist, Nobel’s association with Sohlman was more personal. Sohlman, a Swedish-born chemical engineer like Nobel, was only twenty-five years old at the time of Nobel’s death. The two men had first met three years earlier. In 1893, Sohlman had moved to Paris to begin work as Nobel’s personal assistant. After efficiently reorganising Nobel’s reference library and his extensive files, Sohlman was precipitously transferred to Nobel’s new laboratory in San Remo, Italy. Sohlman had little choice but to move: the French government had accused Nobel of stealing a formula from a French competitor and had forcibly closed his laboratory on the outskirts of Paris.

Figure 5. A one-legged stool.

Sohlman’s tenure at San Remo was brief. Within a year of his arrival, Nobel acquired controlling interest in AB Bofors, a large Swedish ironworks and weapons foundry located on the outskirts of Karlskoga, a town in western Sweden. As part of the purchase price, Nobel also acquired ownership of Björkborn Manor, a comfortable but slightly worn residence on the grounds of the property. With the assistance of his nephew Hjalmer, Nobel planned to refurbish the Manor as his permanent home. After years of an unsettled and itinerant lifestyle, Nobel had finally grown nostalgic for the country of his birth and had resolved to spend his remaining years in Sweden.

Both Nobel and Sohlman moved from San Remo to Karlskoga in early 1895. Sohlman had, by then, favourably married. With Nobel’s permission, he had taken a short holiday the preceding year to pursue his courtship of Ragnhild Strom, a Norwegian woman he had met through family friends. Once living in Karlskoga, the young couple began to dine with Nobel, an arrangement then unusual in an employer–employee relationship. Soon, Nobel was inviting Sohlman to address him as Father.^fn11 Though Sohlman was too embarrassed to do so, he did begin to greet Nobel by his Christian name and to refer to himself as ‘your affectionate friend R’ when signing his letters to Nobel.

Nobel’s tender feelings for Sohlman would prove lifesaving. In the early 1890s, Salomon August Andrée, Sweden’s first balloonist, had roused patriotic fervour by proposing to pilot a balloon to the North Pole in order to claim the iconic destination in the name of Sweden. Anticipating the arrival of aerial warfare, Nobel envisioned that manned balloons might one day become effective vehicles to drop bombs on enemy positions. Eager to participate in all aspects of the explosives industry, Nobel became one of Andrée’s earliest and most generous financial backers.

Figure 6. Ragnar Sohlman.

In the summer of 1896, Andrée visited Bofors at Nobel’s invitation. During the ensuing discussions, in which Sohlman also participated, Nobel encouraged Andrée to persevere with his dream of Arctic sovereignty. Earlier that spring, Andrée’s first attempt to launch his balloon had failed and there were critics who now viewed the entire notion as foolhardy. Nobel’s optimism, however, was infectious and a re-energised Andrée assured Nobel he would re-attempt the flight in the coming year. As Andrée’s large hydrogen balloon required a three-man crew, Sohlman volunteered – unexpectedly – to join the proposed expedition. The following day Nobel, concerned for Sohlman’s safety, spoke to Andrée privately and threatened to withdraw his financial support should the flight proceed with Sohlman on board. Andrée duly informed Sohlman that, in light of Sohlman’s meteorological inexperience, his participation would no longer be possible on what would ultimately prove to be a doomed expedition.^fn12

Figure 7. S. A. Andrée’s doomed Arctic balloon expedition (1897).

Nobel summered at Björkborn Manor in 1895 and 1896. Although he had initially intended to live year-round within its poorly insulated quarters, Nobel found he could no longer endure the bitterly cold Swedish winters. To avoid the inhospitable weather, he would stay instead at his Italian residence in San Remo. On 7 December 1896, in a letter mailed from Villa San Remo, Nobel would write his last words to Sohlman:

Alas, my health is so poor again that I can only scribble these words with difficulty. But I shall come back as soon as possible to the subjects which interest us both,

Affectionately, Alfred Nobel

One day later, Nobel collapsed into a state of semi-consciousness. Although Sohlman was alerted of Nobel’s abrupt deterioration and immediately left Sweden for Italy, he did not arrive until shortly after Nobel’s death. It was there, while assisting with Nobel’s funeral arrangements, that Sohlman first learned of the provisions of Nobel’s will and his unexpected responsibilities. When Lilljeqvist was informed by telegram one day later that he was also an executor of Nobel’s testamentary dispositions, he was as surprised as Sohlman.