 The Cavalcade of America presented by Dupont. History is studded with the names of men and women who turned to America in their hour of need and one recognition. This evening we bring you the story of a genius who was shunted aside by Europe until America eventually recognized his work. The story of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. His belief in his own invention and his unswerving faith in the potential greatness of this country of ours were typically American. They are the same ideals which inspire the research chemist to strive continually toward the goal expressed in the Dupont Fledge, better things for better living through chemistry. As an overture, Don Voorhees and the Dupont Cavalcade Orchestra present a special setting of Kahlua from Jerome Kern's operetta Good Morning, Dearie. Dynamite is doing at this minute, deep down under the pavements of New York City, just a few blocks from the theater in which this broadcast is originating. About 50 feet underground, blasters and drillers are using dynamite to help them bore the approach to the new midtown tunnel which will pass under the Hudson River. You know, Holly, this is going to be quite a hold when we get it done. How'd you like to dig it all out by hand? I sometimes think about that. The job would never be finished if we had to do that. Yeah, but we don't have to. Swedish fellow, he'll start. A Swedish? Ah, go on, you're kidding. I tell you the truth. Now listen, Holly, I like you, you're all right. The Swedes haven't done everything in the world, you know. Yeah, but Swedish fellow, he helped us rip the rock out of this tunnel, every other tunnel, every deep foundation. There, you hear that? Of course, another blast down the line. Another few hundred pounds of rock ready to be carried out. Thanks to dynamite. Thanks to Swedish fellow, Nobel. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, now famous as the inventor of dynamite, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, October 21st, 1833, the third of a family of four sons. He first enters our story in 1848 when he was 15 years old. With his father, Emmanuel Nobel, he is visiting the laboratory of Professor Signeen in St. Petersburg, Russia. I am glad you have come to see me, Mr. Nobel. I am happy that you have brought your young son, Alfred. He has been urging me for some time to bring him to see your laboratory, Professor Signeen. You are interested in chemistry, Alfred? Yes, professor, especially in nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin? But what in the world can you know about nitroglycerin? Well, I know that doctors use it as a heart stimulant, but my father is interested in other uses for it. What might they be? I don't know what they might be, sir. I only know that nitroglycerin is a powerful explosive. Quite right. Alfred, would you like to see a demonstration of that? Oh, yes, sir. I would. I would like to also, professor. I know you have carried through some experimental work with nitroglycerin, Mr. Nobel. So have I. And I have discovered a certain peculiarity it has as an explosive, I mean. Its properties are unusual, to say the least. And its potentialities are great. Watch. Let me pour just a few drops of the nitroglycerin and this iron, and this. There. Notice the extent of the mass. Now I shall explode it to stand back, Alfred. Yes, sir, but I want to see what happens. Oh, you shall see. Just watch the nitroglycerin when I strike it with a hammer. Ready? Now. There. Do you see the same thing I do, Mr. Nobel? Yes, I see. I see it too. It all exploded right where it was. It didn't spread as you would expect an oil to do. Mr. Nobel, your son has expressed it better than I could. Is he a chemical genius? A youthful prodigy? Well, Alfred is intensely interested in chemical experiments. It exploded without spreading. Pardon me, sir. What do you believe about nitroglycerin? I believe it is potentially the greatest explosive agent the world has ever known. But we must learn how to control its powers. First, we must have a practical way to detonate it, to explode it. You understand? Yes, sir. I understand. And I... I wonder. The strange substance nitroglycerin continued to weave in and out of Alfred Nobel's life. In 1862, 20 years after he had first learned the explosive, Alfred was experimenting with it. One day, he and his brother, Robert, stand on the edge of a canal in St. Petersburg. Sir, Alfred, what is it now? Nitroglycerin again? Yeah. Do you remember what Professor Seneen said about it? That it would become an important commercial explosive if only a practical means could be devised to detonate it. Yeah. And you have found that means Alfred? Well, perhaps. I hope so. You see what I have here? Yeah. First, I filled a glass tube with nitroglycerin and corked it well. Yeah, and then? I inserted the tube into another, filled with gunpowder. A fuse leads into the powder through this cork. But that proves nothing. That is why we are here now. We may be able to prove something. Be careful. Be careful lighting the fuse. We don't want to be blown to pieces. Throw it away, Alfred. Throw it away. Yeah, yeah. I'm planning to do that. There. Now we shall see what happens. But you threw it in the water. Nothing can happen to it there. You shall know before long. Alfred, it exploded. You have done it. Yeah. I believe that I have found out how to detonate nitroglycerin. Yeah. The next step is to make it better and safer. So Alfred Nobel successfully completed the first experiment towards the practical control of nitroglycerin. The first step in harnessing this powerful explosive and putting it to work. He continued his experiments two years past. We traveled to Lake Malaren in Sweden. Two men, Jalmer Svensson and Oscar Holmquist by name, a ring of boats, heading towards a barge anchored well out in the lake. This is a fine business. Stuck in a barge in the middle of a lake, kept away from land for fear of a blow up the town. Ro, you talk too much, Svensson. Yeah. Alfred Nobel is a madman. He pays us for our work. Yeah. He got to live somehow. Nobel is a great man. Yeah. Yeah. But he is smart, Svensson. It isn't every boy born with a weak back who can grow up to what he is. What he is? What is he, huh? A fine engineer, Svensson. Yeah. A simpleton with a long skull. He is with death. You know, Oscar Holmquist. That isn't what an Ericsson said when Mr. Nobel saw him in America. And Ericsson is one of our greatest Swedish engineers, even though he has become an American. Yeah. A crazy dreamer. Working with nitroglycerin. Stuffed it can blow it all into eternity without a second warning. That's Mr. Alfred Nobel. Yeah. Killed his brother. And Ericsson and Helena Borg didn't it? It hasn't killed us. Yeah. Not yet. But it may. Look, something's wrong on the part. Ro. What is it? Ro. Nobel is waving his arms like a vialtine. Ro, Svensson, he needs us. Yeah, let me see. Good bevers. He is dancing. Oscar, Svensson, go faster. Ro, come quickly. Yeah. He has been working too hard. He's out of his mind. Oh, what news I have for you. We have finally turned the corner in the road. You hear that, Svensson? Watch that door, man. Take it in. Yeah, it can reach into the bud. You know, I have it. I'll steady the board. Why are you so excited, Mr. Nobel? Oh, because something has happened. And from it, I have an idea. One of the cans of nitroglycerin leaked into the key cellure. The earth in which we had packed the can. Good bevers. And that I was not there. And the nitroglycerin was absorbed by the key cellure, leaving a sort of crust. But what is strange about that? The amount of absorption was tremendous. Come, come on board. I will show you. Yeah, all right. Yeah. We are on the right track. I know it. I have an idea. And I believe it will lead us to an explosive that is safe to handle. The DuPont cavalcade moves forward. The idea born on that barge was followed by days and weeks of strenuous efforts. Nobel gave mankind an explosive that could be handled safely. That was safe when handled by experienced man. He was already manufacturing a nitroglycerin he called Nobel's patent blasting oil. So he called the new explosive dynamite and started to manufacture it about the end of the year 1866. In 1867, Nobel and his partner T. Winkler faced what appears to be a crisis. They are seated in an office in Hamburg, Germany. You are very doubtful. Yeah, I am Winkler. Things are piling up on us. There is no sense in trying to carry our development of nitroglycerin any further. But our business? Yeah, that is just the point, Winkler. Louis de Gauprey is waiting in the other room. What he has to say will have definite bearing on a plan I have in mind. Please ask him to come in. Yes, I will. Please come in, Monsieur de Gauprey. Let the Nobel will see you. Merci, Monsieur. May compliment, Monsieur Nobel. Let's sit down, Louis. Now, what have you to tell us? It will not please you, Monsieur. One by one, after a painstaking consideration, the nations of Europe are forbidding the shipment of nitroglycerin. I know that. They will not transport it. It is too dangerous. Yeah, but France says the same. France must link hands with the others, Monsieur Nobel. She knows quite well the other nations know that nitroglycerin cannot be transported safely. You will realize what that means. Yes, it is unfortunate, Monsieur. It is unjust, unfair. It is unfortunate I could not have brought you a more pleasing answer. That is all. I believe so. Yes, Monsieur. I am sorry. Au revoir. Well, that settles it, Winkler. I have believed that our new product, Dynamite, is the answer to our problem. Now, Bopré has proved it is the answer. Here in Europe? Well, yes, Winkler, but mostly in America. It is a vast country, America, and a new country. It has the greatest natural resources in the world. Such resources cannot be adequately developed without explosives. Dynamite solves the problem. You're right, Alfred. I trust so, and we are going to find out. I have had my taste of America, and I like it, too. But it is your turn. You know our problems. You will handle them wisely. So you sail at once for San Francisco. Winkler, authorized to represent Alfred Nobel, took ship for the United States and arrived in San Francisco in 1868. The United States was almost a virgin country, a country in the making. There were roads to be built, tunnels to be driven through mountains, bridges to be pushed across wide rivers. America did need Dynamite, but not every American appreciated the fact. In a San Francisco hotel, a traveling man greets the manager. Hello, Ed. I just happened to be passing your office, and so you weren't busy. How are you? Great, Bill. I'm glad you dropped in. You know, that's why I always leave the door to my office open into the lobby. I like to talk to guests if they want to bother with me. Have a cigar? Oh, thanks. Well, how's business? Oh, fine. The accommodation's all right? They certainly are. Since I've got to know you, this hotel has always given me the best they had. Say, you got anybody interesting staying here with you? Oh, about the usual crowd. Except for a man named Winkler. Winkler? Who's he? He's a partner of a Swedish inventor, a man named Nobel. What do you invent? Winkler calls it Dynamite. Some new kind of an explosive. Oh, yes, I've read about it. I've seen the stuff. He has it with him. He comes in sticks about so big around. And he's living in this hotel with this explosive? Of course. Why not? But Ed, that stuff's dangerous. Why, why it must be. Don't you know what happened in New York at the Wyoming Hotel in 65? No. A man named Lurs from Hamburg registered at the Wilming. Just as Winkler registered here. What happened? He had a small box with him, and he left it in the lobby. The boot black got to using it for a foot rest when he was shining shoes. One Sunday, he saw a reddish smoke coming out of that box. Smoke? Yes, he carried it out into the street, and he got away just in time. The thing blew up. Windows were smashed, the street was torn up to a depth of four feet, and plenty of people were cut with flying glass. Luckily, nobody was seriously hurt, but it made a mess of the hotel. Bill, is this true? It's the gospel truth, every word of it. You'd better watch it, Mr. Winkler, Ed. He just passed the door as you were speaking. Wait here, I'll get back. Mr. Winkler? Mr. Winkler? Yes, Mr. Summer, did you want me? Yes, something's quite important. Will you please step in here? Of course. Mr. Winkler, this is Mr. Abbott. Bill, this is Mr. Winkler. How did you do it? Mr. Winkler, I have a sad duty department. I have a sad duty to perform. I've got to ask you to leave this hotel. Leave? But why? Because of your dynamite. It's dangerous. There have been accidents. Accidents? It's made from nitroglycerin, isn't it? Yes. The base is nitroglycerin. And of course, there have been accidents from the improper handling of nitroglycerin. But the cause was nitroglycerin, not dynamite. As far as I'm concerned, they're one and the same thing. Sir, you're wrong. Alfred Nobel realized that nitroglycerin was dangerous. That is why he experimented until he discovered dynamite. When handled by experienced men, dynamite is safe. Can you prove that? I believe I can. If you can, I'll keep my room here. Otherwise, I'm moving out. Now, Bill... I'm sorry, that's the way I feel about it. Mr. Winkler, I'd like to have you prove your statement about dynamite if you can. Otherwise, I must insist that you leave. I cannot afford to endanger my guests. That is agreeable to me. But I'd like to have you see a demonstration of dynamite. I've planned for some building contractors, some mining men. It's to be held on a hill just outside of town. Gentlemen, will you accompany me? Well, how about it, Bill? Do you want to go? Yes, sure, I'll go. If you're sure your dynamite is safe, Mr. Winkler. That I promise you, and what is more, I promise that I shall prove it to you. D. Winkler went upstairs to his hotel room. He returned in a few minutes, carrying a small black bag. Then he escorted the two men to the edge of the city. We find the three climbing a hill overlooking San Francisco Bay. Aren't we almost there? I didn't know we were going to tramp all over California. How about it, Mr. Winkler? How much further are you taking us? Only a little bit. Oh, there. There you can see where my invited guests have assembled for the demonstration. Hey, Winkler, hurry up! You're late! Yeah, we'll be with you in a minute, gentlemen. Well, I'm glad we've got company way out here. I recognize quite a few of these men, Mr. Winkler. That was Blake who called you. He owns a mine. Yeah, yeah, and there's Mr. Smith, the contractor. Yeah, Winkler. We thought you were never coming. Well, I'm sorry I was late, but I'm here now. Hi, Smith. Mr. Blake, this is Abbott. I didn't grab it. Well, Winkler, now that you're here, how about the demonstration? Have you brought some of your dynamite? I have. It's here in this bag. And it's a powerful explosive. It is. What's more? It's safe. What? Hey. Yeah, dear. Did you see what he did? Yeah. Dropped his bag of dynamite to the ground. Gave me a start, too. Who? Lucky, he didn't have nitrogression in that bag. We might all have been blown to kingdom come. Hey, Bill, against the look of those, if man Winkler is right about dynamite being safe to handle. Certainly does, Ed. Now, gentlemen, I want to prove to you that dynamite is really an effective explosive. Now, here is a hole in the rock. I drilled it yesterday. And here is a stick of dynamite from my bag. Come on. Don't worry. Don't worry. It won't bite you. Funny looking stuff, ain't it? Yeah, it looks like a big candle. And now then, I lower the dynamite into the hole. So, then I tamp it down, burbling. Hey, be careful. I am, I am careful. I know how to handle dynamite. And now, I lower another stick into the hole. This one has a fuse and a blasting cap attached to it. Now, I lay the fuse along the ground like this. Now, please stand back now, gentlemen. What's the greatest of pleasure? Back a little further while I run the fuse along the ground. That's it. Back, back. There, there, there. That should be far enough. Now, to light the fuse. Hey, Ed, let's get farther away. Don't worry. I'm coming with you. Faster. Look at that fuse burn. Wait a minute, Bill. Something's happening. Hey, hey. Hey, wait, Claire. Your fuse ain't burning. Stay where you are, these gentlemen. We're far enough away now, but don't go back. Yeah, but the fuse went out. No, no, no. There it is. It's burning all right. Ed, it's getting short. Come on, Ed. Come here, Bill. Now, close your ears. Stuff your fingers into them. The dynamite is going... Thunder, Winkler, you did it. Look at the mess of rock you blasted away. Yeah. And none of us was harmed. That short demonstration proved the practical worth of dynamite. Many improvements were made in the years that followed, and dynamite played a vital role in carving a nation from the wilderness. America is proud that dynamite really came into its own within the boundaries of the United States. And DuPont is proud to add the name of its inventor, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, to the distinguished roster of the Cavalcade of America. More than 125 years ago, 22 years before Nobel was born, Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States, wrote a letter to his young friend, E.I. DuPont, ordering a quarter of a hundred of DuPont blasting powder to be used for clearing rocks from Jefferson's farm. About 75 years later, the company DuPont founded started producing dynamite, for the new industrial explosive had proved itself a much better product for most blasting purposes. Since that day, DuPont chemists have made many improvements in dynamite. Recently, DuPont announced the last word in safety, the blasting agent called nitroman, which is so shock-proof that one can throw it off a cliff or fire into it with a rifle bullet without setting it off. No other product does more constructive work than dynamite. Let's take a quick swing around our own country and see what DuPont dynamite is doing to help build the America of today. Detroit, Michigan. DuPont dynamite helps deepen a waterway that's the world's busiest in the open season to handle the bigger freighters now in use on the Great Lakes. The Livingston Channel in the Detroit River, connecting Lake Erie and Huron is made deeper, safer. In the Pacific Northwest, where DuPont dynamite is helping build the world's greatest engineering projects, the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. By controlling headwater to the Missouri River, it helps control floods. The Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington. In the Upper Columbia River Basin, Grand Coulee will form a lake about 150 miles long, making productive land out of a barren area larger than the state of Delaware. And the Bonneville Dam near Portland, Oregon. Dynamite aids navigation and power development here. The sewage rocks blasted from the roaring cascade rapids so that boats may pass. And the lower Columbia, control, furnishing power for home and industry. In the great coal region of West Virginia. An underground miracle made possible by dynamite. The 18.5 mile tunnel that drains off water so that millions of tons of coal may be mined with safety. DuPont dynamite helps carve an amazing skyline highway out of the mountains. It's the Blue Ridge National Parkway covering more than 500 picturesque miles from Virginia through North Carolina. Now we jump to Lackawack, New York, in the Catskills. Rundout Creek, headwater to the Delaware River. Work started on a tunnel nearly 100 miles long. It'll carry drinking water to the city of New York. Train loads of dynamite will be used in its construction. Yes, dynamite's the builder. Developed a chemist for widely varied uses that contribute toward national progress and personal comfort for us all. By his many improvements in the efficiency and safety of dynamite, the research chemist continues toward the goal described in the DuPont pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. Thomas A. Edison, the man. Little-known human incidents in the life of America's foremost inventor will be the subject of our broadcast when next week at this same time, Ponte again presents the Cavalcade of America. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System. Thank you.