The Stonehenge Letters. Harry Karlinsky
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.
NOBEL’S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
Nobel’s Last Will and Testament was dated 27 November 1895. An unexpectedly informal document, the will was handwritten in Swedish and signed by four Swedish witnesses at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris in early December 1895. After specifying individual bequests to eighteen family members, servants, and acquaintances, the will read as follows:
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not.
It was a remarkable philanthropic vision. As Sohlman and Lilljeqvist immediately recognised, however, the will – stubbornly constructed by Nobel without legal advice – contained significant deficiencies that might easily undermine its realisation. For assistance, the two executors turned to Carl Lindhagen, a young lawyer who would later serve a long tenure as Chief Magistrate of Stockholm.