Timeline

1837

Immanuel Nobel emigrates from Sweden to reach St Petersburg, Russia, with his family 1842.
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1859

Immanuel Nobel returns to Sweden and the creditors of his insolvent workshop in St Petersburg plead to his son Ludvig to continue the operations.
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1862

The Ludvig Nobel Engineering Works Company is formed in St Petersburg.

1864

Ludvig Nobel in a letter to his brother, Robert: ”Petroleum has a bright future!”

1864

Robert Nobel starts the Lamp and lamp oil warehouse, Aurora, in Finland.

1870

Ludvig Nobel is awarded the privilege to use the imperial Russian herald, the double eagle.

1872

Ludvig Nobel and Peter Bilderling build a factory for weapons production in Izhevsk in the Urals.

1873

Robert Nobel looks for walnut wood for Ludvig’s rifles in the forests of the Caucasus.

1873

The monopoly-contract system for renting oil deposits is abolished in favour of public auction of contracts in the Caucasus.

1874

Robert Nobel buys a refinery and a plot of land in Baku.

1875

Robert Nobel begins producing paraffin in Baku.

1875

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil gets competition from Nobel.

1876

Ludvig Nobel sends his works manager, Alexander Bary, to the USA to study American oil management.

1876

Ludvig Nobel and his son, Emanuel, visit Robert in Baku.

1876

Knowledge of oil management is obtained from the USA.

1877

The first pipes for the pipeline in Baku are ordered from Glasgow.

1877

Ludvig Nobel lectures on oil extraction in Baku at the Imperial Russian Technical Society.

1877

The plan for the distribution of paraffin from Baku to the Russian market is completed.

1878

The world’s first tanker, Zoroaster, built in Sweden, is commissioned.

1879

The limited company, Branobel, is formed by Ludvig, Robert and Alfred Nobel, Peter Bilderling and others. The share capital is 3 million roubles.

1879

The Nobels’ employee, Engineer Alfred Törnqvist, is sent to the USA to study the American oil industry.

1879

Wilhelm Hagelin comes to Baku as a stowaway.

1880

Robert Nobel leaves Baku and Alfred Törnqvist becomes manager of Branobel.

1881

Ludvig’s son, Emanuel Nobel, becomes responsible for Branobel’s economic matters.

1881

Tsar Alexander II is murdered in a bomb attack. Ludvig Nobel’s import of Alfred’s dynamite is stopped.

1881

The Branobel tanker, Nordenskiöld, is ravaged by fire during loading in Baku.

1882

Continuous operation is introduced in the distillery with a technology patented by Ludvig Nobel.

1882

Six tankers are delivered to Branobel.

1883

American oil products are driven out of competition in the Russian market.

1884

Villa Petrolea is inaugurated. Ludvig and Carl Nobel visit Baku.

1885

A tanker, Branobel’s Sviet, arrives in London with paraffin in bulk for the first time.

1885

The geologists break new ground.

1886

Financial crisis at Branobel.

1886

A railway tunnel is blasted through the Surami Pass in Georgia using Alfred Nobel’s dynamite.

1887

Alfred Nobel resigns from Branobel’s management.

1888

Tsar Alexander III visits Baku. Emanuel Nobel receives the Imperial Medal and is invited to become a Russian citizen.

1888

Ludvig Nobel dies in France. His son, Emanuel, is given responsibility for Branobel and his other son, Carl, responsibility for the Engineering Works.

1890

Cholera epidemic in Baku. Branobel takes the initiative in setting up a cholera hospital.

1890

The oil companies in Baku get involved in municipal affairs.

1892

Baku’s seven biggest oil companies make an unsuccessful attempt to form a syndicate.

1893

Branobel makes a record profit. Its capital is now 20 million roubles.

1893

Carl Nobel dies in Zürich and his brother, Emanuel, becomes the sole head of all the Nobel companies.

1896

The railway between Baku and Batumi is destroyed by flooding.

1896

Robert Nobel dies on 7 August and Alfred Nobel on 10 December.

1896

Tsar Nicholas’s coronation party is surrounded by drama.

1898

Emanuel Nobel buys Alfred’s shares in Branobel, corresponding to 12% of the Nobel Foundation’s basic capital.

1898

Mediation over Alfred Nobel’s will.

1898

Emanuel acquires a licence from Diesel.

1899

The Evangelical-Protestant church is established in Baku, partly financed by Nobel.

1900

Harvest times for the Nobel brothers’ oil adventure.

1902

Harvest time for Branobel. The company produces 10% of the world’s oil and orders tankers to a value of SEK 12 billion.

1903

New railway and oil pipeline constructed from Baku to Batumi.

1903

Branobel’s attempts to merge with Standard Oil fail.

1903

Social unrest in Baku. 36 of Branobel’s drilling towers are destroyed.

1903

What was life like for a young Swedish woman in Baku at the turn of the last century?

1904

The first Russian collective agreement is entered into. The Transcaucasian Bolshevik Party is formed in Tbilisi in Georgia.

1905

Strikes result in ”Bloody Sunday” on 22 January in St Petersburg. The first organised strike, also in Baku. Extensive destruction of the oil fields.

1905

The danger of having a ”rainmaker” as a wife.

1905

Strikes force the Nobels’ office and works in St Petersburg to close.

1906

Calmer politically than the foregoing year, but it will take Branobel 9 years to pick up its former production volume again.

1906

The Russian oil company, Steaua Romana, forms a union with Branobel, the Rothschilds and Deutsche Bank.

1907

1907 was a bloodstained and tragic year for the Swedish colony in Baku.

1909

Branobel celebrates it’s 30th anniversary – but the Baku oil is running out.

1911

Standard Oil is split up into 34 companies after the USA’s Supreme Court has decided that the company constitutes an illegal cartel.

1912

Ludvig Nobel’s Engineering Works in St Petersburg celebrate their fiftieth anniversary.

1914

A great deal at stake over the sale of Branobel.

1914

The First World War breaks out on 28 July.

1917

The Russian Revolution breaks out and the Tsar abdicates on 15 March. By a Coup d’état Lenin seizes power on 7 November.

1918

The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan declares itself independent on 28 May.

1918

The brothers, Gösta and Emil Nobel, are arrested in St Petersburg but succeed in escaping and are united with the entire Nobel family in Stockholm for Christmas.