Nobel Prize Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize. In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize". The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van 't Hoff. Van 't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics. The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature.
French cruiser Sully "Sully" had a draft of and displaced . "Sully" had three propeller shafts, each powered by one vertical triple-expansion steam engine, which were rated at a total of . Twenty-four Belleville water-tube boilers provided steam for her engines. She had a designed speed of . She carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of . "Sully"s main armament consisted of two guns mounted in single-gun turrets fore and aft. Her intermediate armament was eight guns. Four of these were in single gun turrets on the sides of the ship and the other four were in