I went to look the Physics prize up, and got sidetracked by the winner of the Peace prize - Elihu Root.
First of all, the name sounds like a Neal Stephenson character. Then, I'm reading his page and it says things like:
- He got his start as defense counsel for Boss Tweed
- Went on to be a prominent corporate lawyer
- Was a lifelong opponent of feminism
- Was an advocate for American imperialism in the Philippines and elsewhere
- As secretary of war, was the "leading modernizer of the Army"
- Tried but failed to make an alliance between the US and Russia just after their revolution - may have inadvertently caused the rise of the Bolsheviks by allegedly inciting the provisional government to do something stupid
- Supported the amendment to the US Constitution allowing an income tax
- His "mentor" was Joseph Hodges Choate, who made the cover of Vogue in April 1898...
The winner of the Physics prize "was blinded in an acetylene explosion during a test of maximum pressure" the same year.
This made people fondly recall the disregard for personal safety in pursuit of explosive technology of Alfred Nobel himself, hence the prize, so it is claimed.
