He was born in Stockholm on October 21,1833 but moved to Russia with his parents in 1842, where his father, Immanuel, made a strong position for himself in the engineering industry. Immanuel Nobel invented the landmine and made a lot of money from government orders for it during the Crimean War （克里米亚战争） ,but went bankrupt soon after. Most of the family returned to Sweden in 1859, where Alfred rejoined them in 1863, beginning his own study of explosives in his father's laboratory. He had never been to school or university but had studied privately and by the time he was twenty was a skillful chemist and excellent linguist, speaking Swedish, Russian, German, French and English. Like his father, Alfred Nobel was imaginative and inventive, but he had better luck in business and showed more financial sense. He was quick to see industrial openings（机会）for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries. Indeed his greatness lay in his outstanding ability to combine the qualities of an original scientist with those of a forward-looking industrialist.
艾尔弗雷德·诺贝尔1833年10月21日生于斯德哥尔摩，1842年随父母移居俄国，他父亲依梅纽尔在俄国的工程界创立了稳固的地位。依梅纽尔·诺贝尔发明了地雷，并在克里米亚战争期间从政府的大量订货中赚了一大笔钱，可惜好景不长，很快便遭破产。1859年，大部分家人返回瑞典，艾尔弗雷德则于1863年与家人团聚，并在父亲的实验室里开始研制炸药。他从未上过学，全靠自学成才，20岁时，便成了一名技术娴熟的化学师，通晓数国语言，能熟练地说瑞典语、俄语、德语、法语和英语。像父亲一样，艾尔弗雷德·诺贝尔有着丰富的想象力和创造力，但他在事业上却比他父亲走运，也更有经济头脑。他不失时机地把自己的科学发明运用到工业上，在20个国家内开设了80多家公司。他的过人之处实际上就在于他有杰出的才能，把一个具有独创性的科学家和一个具有远见卓识的实业家的品质融为一体。