Physics: 1912

Dalen, Nils Gustaf (1869-1937), a Swedish inventor and engineer, won the 1912 Nobel Prize for physics for inventing automatic gas regulators.

In 1906, Dalen became chief engineer with the Gas Accumulator company. He later invented a substance called Agamassam (made of asbestos and a type of earth) to absorb acetylene gas safely and to concentrate it for storage. Dalen also invented a sun-valve, or Solventil, which automatically regulates a gaslight source. The Solventil turns on the source when there is no light, and turns it off when light returns. This automatic gas regulation system became popular around the world for buoys and lighthouses.

In 1912, a sudden explosion blinded Dalen. Despite this setback, he continued work and invented an energy-efficient cast-iron stove that could cook for 24 hours on a small amount of coal. It had one warm and one hot plate, and one warm and one hot oven. Dalen's design for the stove is still used in some countries.

Dalen was born in Stenstorp, Sweden. He grew up on a farm and entered a school of agriculture to study farming. But he later changed to engineering, which he studied at the Chalmers University of Technology at Goteborg, Sweden, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.