Axel Jacob Petersson (1834–15 January 1884) was a Swedish-Norwegian structural engineer and inventor. He is most noted for his work with railway bridges and viaducts in Norway from the 1860s through the 1870s, as well as developing the

Krag–Petersson The Krag–Petersson was the first repeating rifle adopted by the armed forces of Norway and was one of the first repeating rifles to be adopted as standard issue by a military force,

rifle.

Biography

Petersson was born in

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

in 1834. He studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm between 1852 and 1855. He worked for the Swedish Canal Administration and later for a private railway in Sweden. He moved to Norway in 1859, after he was hired as an assistant engineer for the construction of the

Kongsvinger Line The Kongsvinger Line ( no, Kongsvingerbanen) is a railway line between the towns of Lillestrøm and Kongsvinger in Norway and onwards to Charlottenberg in Sweden. The railway was opened on 3 October 1862 and is Norway's second standard gauge lin ...

. By 1865 he was hired as the chief of the Railway Construction Office. He was responsible for construction of bridges and viaducts on the

Østfold Line The Østfold Line ( no, Østfoldbanen) is a railway line which runs from Oslo through the western parts of Follo and Østfold to Kornsjø in Norway. It continues through Sweden as the Norway/Vänern Line. The northern half is double track and ...

and the

Dovre Line The Dovre Line ( no, Dovrebanen) is a Norwegian railway line with three slightly different lines which all lead to the historic city of Trondheim. Definition *Dovre Line is the current name of the 548 km main line of the Norwegian railway s ...

between

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information ...

and

Hamar Hamar is a town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the traditional region of Hedmarken. The town is located on the shores of Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake ...

. By 1881 Peterson had poor health and retired. He died on 15 January 1884 in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. There was a story that stayed around for a long time that the constructor of the Ljan Viaduct had committed suicide before its opening because he did not trust it to stand. Geir-Wider Langård has proposed that this folklore arose with the magnitude of the bridge combined with the

Tay Bridge disaster The Tay Bridge disaster occurred during a violent storm on Sunday 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line from Burntisland bound for its final ...

in Scotland which killed 75 people when it collapsed the same year as the Ljan Viaduct opened in 1879.

Works

Some of the larger constructions were Minnesund Railway Bridge (''Minnesund Jernbanebru''), Ljan Viaduct (''Ljansbroen''),

Hølen Viaduct The Hølen Viaduct ( no, Hølen viadukt) is a disused iron railway viaduct situated at Hølen in Viken (county), Viken county, Norway. The iron carried a single track of the Østfold Line over the river Såna and the valley where the village of H ...

(''Hølen viadukt'') and Sarp Bridge (''Sarpsbroene''). Petersson invented the pendular pillar principle, which was first applied on Hølen Viaduct. Petersson also made a series of other inventions. He developed a rotating camera and calculating machines. He cooperated with

Ole Herman Johannes Krag Ole Herman Johannes Krag (7 April 1837 – 9 December 1916) was a Norwegian officer and firearms designer. Biography Ole H. J. Krag was born in Vågå, in Oppland county, Norway. Krag grew up in various locations where his father, Hans Peter Sc ...

to develop the

rifle, which was a mainstay in the Norwegian military for decades.

Bibliography

* ''Regler for Maskindeles Konstruktion'' (1866, 1877) with C. M. Guldberg * ''Regler for Vandhjuls og Turbiners Konstruktion'' (1868) with C. M. Guldberg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersson, Axel 1834 births 1884 deaths People from Öland Swedish engineers Norwegian engineers Bridge engineers Viaduct engineers Swedish emigrants to Norway