Ascanio Sobrero

Ascanio Sobrero (October 12 1812 – May 26 1888), was the Italian chemist, born in Casale Monferrato, who discovered nitroglycerine in 1847 while working under Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the University of Turin, who had worked with the explosive material guncotton.

He studied medicine in Turin and Paris and then chemistry at the University of Gießen with Justus Liebig, being awarded with the phd in 1832. In 1845 he became professor at the University of Turin

He initially called his discovery "pyroglycerine", and warned vigorously against its use in his private letters and in a journal article, stating that it was extremely dangerous and impossible to handle. in fact, he was so frightened by what he created that he kept it a secret for over a year.

Another of Pelouze's students was the young Alfred Nobel, who took the knowledge back to the Nobel family's defunct armaments factory, and began experimenting with the material around 1860; it did, indeed prove to be very difficult to discover how to handle it safely. Throughout the 1860s Nobel received several patents around the world for mixtures, devices and manufacturing methods based on the explosive power of nitroglycerine, eventually leading to the invention of dynamite.

Although Nobel always acknowledged and honored Sobrero as the man who had discovered nitroglycerine, Sobrero was dismayed both by the uses to which the explosive had been put, and by the fame and fortune accorded to Nobel because of it.