Helge Palmcrantz (July 7, 1842 – November 22, 1880) was a Swedish

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Biography

Palmcrantz was born at Hammerdal in

Jämtland Jämtland (; no, Jemtland or , ; Jamtish: ''Jamtlann''; la, Iemptia) is a historical province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to the east, Lapland to the north a ...

, Sweden. He was the son of Per Gustaf Palmcrantz (1806–1905) and Lovisa Ulrika Nordenmark. His father was a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the

Jämtland Ranger Regiment Jämtland (; no, Jemtland or , ; Jamtlandic, Jamtish: ''Jamtlann''; la, Iemptia) is a historical provinces of Sweden, province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to t ...

. He was enlisted as a cadet in his father's regiment, where he worked doing

land surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

. After a couple of years he left the regiment to study at the Technological Institute of Stockholm, later known as KTH Royal Institute of Technology. In partnership with his brother-in-law, Theodor Winborg (1832–1918), Palmcrantz founded a small workshop on Vollmar Yxkullsgatan 25, Södermalm,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. As number of employees increased along with the production volume, he moved to a new factory on Kungsholmen, Stockholm, where they manufactured

firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

reaping machine A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Ro ...

s, mowers and other agricultural equipment of their own design. The Palmcrantz factory, , would later be built on

Lövholmen Liljeholmen is a district of the Hägersten-Liljeholmen borough in Söderort, the southern suburban part of Stockholm. History In 1860 Liljeholmen became the first suburb outside Stockholm city limits. The district was then one of two self-gov ...

, Stockholm. In 1868, the first version of his machine gun was finished and a demonstration of its capacity was held on Ladugårdsgärdet, Stockholm in front of the Swedish Defense Minister; G. R. Abel. After a couple of modifications and improvements, he patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun and it was bought into the Swedish army. The same year, the machine-gun was exhibited at the

1873 Vienna World's Fair ) , building = Rotunda , area = 233 Ha , invent = , visitors = 7,255,000 , organized = , cnt = , org = , biz = , country = Austria-Hungary , city ...

. To reach international success, Palmcrantz met industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt (1842–1920) in 1875 and the latter's company became his British agent. They agreed to market the machine gun under the then well known Nordenfelt brand and his second model would later be known as the ''

Nordenfelt machine gun The Nordenfelt gun was a Multiple barrel firearm, multiple-barrel organ gun that had a row of up to twelve barrels. It was fired by pulling a lever back and forth and ammunition was gravity fed through chutes for each barrel. It was produced in ...

'' after his financial backer. It was Nordenfelt who convinced Palmcrantz to increase the

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

of his gun to one inch, making it a suitable weapon for use against the growing threat of torpedo boats. Palmcrantz succumbed to an early death from a bleeding ulcer. He was buried at Norra Begravningsplatsen in Stockholm. Helge Palmcrantz has a former school named after him, Palmcrantzskolan in Östersund. The block names "Kulsprutan" and "Lavetten" on Kungsholmen are named after his factories at Hantverkargatan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmcrantz, Helge 1842 births 1880 deaths People from Jämtland 19th-century Swedish inventors Weapon designers Firearm designers 19th-century Swedish businesspeople Swedish nobility KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen