Erik Jørgensen (17 May 1848 – 15 September 1896) was a Norwegian master

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very ...

, well known for his cooperation with Ole Herman Johannes Krag in developing the first successful Krag–Jørgensen

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

Biography

Erik Jørgensen was born in the parish of

Asker Asker (), also called Asker proper (''Askerbygda'' or ''gamle Asker'' in Norwegian), is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway, located approximately 20km southwest of Oslo. From 2020 it is part of the ...

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

on 17 May 1848 in Norway, and grew up on the farm Solstad. He educated himself to be a gunsmith and started working at Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (the most important Norwegian weapon factory) in 1870. It was here that he met Ole H J Krag, and from 1871 Jørgensen worked with Krag on his rifles. As time went on, Jørgensen turned from just doing work for Krag to be an active participant in the development of the rifle which later became known as the Krag–Jørgensen.

References

Other sources

*''Norske Militærgeværer etter 1867,'' by Karl Egil Hanevik, Firearm designers 1848 births 1896 deaths People from Asker Place of death missing {{Norway-engineer-stub