Nobel Prizes

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

FOUNDATION, AND INSTITUTES. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Swedish inventor, provided before his death that five prizes be every year distributed to individuals, who during each respective year had made the greatest contribution to progress and learning in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and fund donated international peace. The by him to these purposes was $9,200,000, rest, usually about of which the interest, usuall $200,000, is awarded by the trustees. The decision in the case of chemistry and physics was intrusted to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, in physiology and medicine to the Caroline or Medical Institute in Stockholm, and in peace to a committee of five, elected by the Storthing of Norway. The Nobel Foundation is formed of a president appointed by the government, and four other members chosen for a two-year term by fifteen deputies named by the bodies intrusted . The by the donor with the awards Foundation has care of the funds, to which one-tenth of the interest is annually added, while a fourth is deducted in the main for the use of the Nobel Institutes. These Institutes include that of the Swedish Academy, with a literary volumes; the Nobel Inlibrary of 38,000 stitute for Physics and Chemistry of with the Stockholm Academy of Sciences a scientific library; and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, with a law library. Awards have been made since 1901 and among the noted recipients have been W. K. Röntgen, G. Lippman, and G. Marconi in physics; Sir W. Ramsay, H. Moissan, and Marie Curie in chemistry; R. Koch , and A. Carrel in medicine; B. Björnson M. F. Mistral, G. Carducci, R. Kipling, Maeterlinck, and Rabindranath Tagore in literature; and Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, T. Roosevelt, and E. Root in international peace. The peace prize for 1919 was awarded to Leon Bourgeois, and for 1920 to Woodrow Wilson.