7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7

The noted scientist Alfred Nobel,

pictured here at around age 30, was

a Swedish chemist and industrialist

known both for inventing dynamite

and for founding the Nobel Prize.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In 1885 Starley’s nephew, John Kemp Starley, designed
and manufactured the Rover, regarded as the fi rst success-
ful “safety” bicycle and the prototype of all modern
bicycles. The Rover provided all the essential features of
the safety bicycle: spoked wheels roughly 30 inches (76
cm) in diameter, a chain-driven rear wheel with the front
chainwheel roughly twice as large as the rear sprocket, a
low centre of gravity, and direct front steering. The design
had decisive advantages in stability, braking, and ease of
mounting. Prior to 1885 many alternative designs were
called safety bicycles, but, after the Rover pattern took
over the market in the late 1880s, safety bicycles were
simply called bicycles. The last catalog year for ordinaries
in England was 1892.

Alfred Nobel

(b. Oct. 21, 1833, Stockholm,
Swed.—d. Dec. 10, 1896, San
Remo, Italy)

A

lfred Bernhard
Nobel, a Swedish
chemist, engineer, and
industrialist, invented
dynamite and other, more
powerful explosives, but
he is also renowned for
having founded the
Nobel Prizes.
Nobel was the fourth
son of Immanuel and
Caroline Nobel. Immanuel
was an inventor and
engineer who had mar-
ried Caroline Andrietta