Whose idea was the Nobel Prize?

Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) made a fortune from inventions including dynamite, patented in 1867, and held 355 patents in total. A story says that in 1888 a French newspaper mistakenly published his obituary, calling him a “merchant of death”, which may have pushed him to think about his legacy. In his final will, signed in Paris in November 1895, he left about 94 percent of his wealth to fund annual prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, on the fifth anniversary of his death. The economics prize was added later, in 1968, by Sweden’s central bank.