Jonas
Lidströmer (1755–1808) was a Swedish inventor and officer in the
Swedish Navy
The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...
.
Lidströmer was born in 1755 at Lagfors bruk,
Medelpad
Medelpad ( or ) is a historical province or ''landskap'' in the north of Sweden. It borders Hälsingland, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Ångermanland and the Gulf of Bothnia.
The province is a part of Norrland and as such considered to be Northe ...
, and died 1808 in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
. He was a ''colonel-mecanicus'', head of the mechanical state of the Royal Swedish Navy, Royal Inventor and advisor to the king, Knight of the
Order of Vasa
The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry founded on 29 May 1772 by Gustav III, King Gustav III. It is awarded to Swedish citizens for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce.
His ...
and eventually knighted
Lidströmer (he was previously called Lidström).
Biography
He was the son of Jonas Lidström the Elder, (born 1713), and began his studies at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially fou ...
in spring 1771.
Jonas Lidströmer has often been called Sweden's "mechanical genius" and is occasionally compared with
Christopher Polhem
Christopher Polhammar (18 December 1661 – 30 August 1751) better known as Christopher Polhem (), which he took after his ennoblement in 1716, was a Swedish scientist, inventor, and industrialist. He made significant contributions to the econ ...
, another notable Swedish inventor.
He collaborated with
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (9 September 1721 – 19 August 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and naval officer. He was vice admiral in the Swedish Navy, and manager of the Karlskrona shipyard from 1782 to 1793. Chapman is credited a ...
and went to
Karlskrona
Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...
with his help, the main base of the Swedish navy at the time. He also collaborated with the artists
Johan Tobias Sergel,
Louis Jean Desprez and
Ehrensvärd, and a letter correspondence with
Carl Christopher Gjörwell has been preserved. The later well-renowned royal architect
Fredrik Blom was one of Lidströmer's apprentices.
He is primarily famous for the
Obelisk at Slottsbacken
The Obelisk at Slottsbacken is an obelisk monument adjacent to the Royal Palace on Slottsbacken in Old Town, Stockholm, Sweden and is considered to be the very centre point of the Swedish capital city. Unveiled in 1800, it commemorates the deeds ...
adjacent to the
Stockholm Palace
Stockholm Palace, or the Royal Palace, ( or ) is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia use Drottningholm Palace as their usual residence). Stockholm Palace is in Stadsholm ...
and the construction of
Norrbro
Norrbro ( Swedish for "North Bridge") is an arch bridge over Norrström in central Stockholm. It extends north from the northern front of the Royal Palace passing over Helgeandsholmen in front of the Riksdag building, and from there over to Gust ...
– the bridge between the Royal Palace and the Opera in Stockholm – he was the architect for the southern part, but leader of the construction of the northern part as well. Lidströmer also erected the statue of King
Gustav III
Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.
Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...
with its pedestal and remodelled the quay building at
Slottsbacken
Slottsbacken (, "Castle Slope") is a street in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.
It stretches east from the Stockholm Cathedral and the Royal Palace down to the street Skeppsbron which passes along the eastern waterfront ...
. He also designed, constructed and built the famous at the naval harbour in Karlskrona.
Lidströmer also constructed a series of harbours in Sweden and
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
and improved the harbours of
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, Karlskrona and
Helsingborg
Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...
.
He was the head of the Mechanical School in
Karlskrona
Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...
, the most qualified technical institute at the time. He is credited with a number of mechanical devices and innovations, such as a horse-drawn grinding machine and lathe, new methods of moulding, and compasses.
Lidströmer was the president of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
(of which he was a member from 1805), and member of several other academies such as the
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other fine arts, it is one of seve ...
and the
Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences () is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden and was founded on 12 November 1796 by Gustaf Wilhelm af Tibell. The academy is an independent organization and a forum for military (army and air force) and de ...
. He was Knight of the Royal
Order of Vasa
The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry founded on 29 May 1772 by Gustav III, King Gustav III. It is awarded to Swedish citizens for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce.
His ...
. Several models and drawings of his work are present at a number of museums such as the
Maritime Museum
A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navy, navies and the m ...
and the
Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, and the
Marinmuseum
Marinmuseum (previously: Shipyard Museum, ''Varvsmuseet''; alternate: Naval Dockyard Museum; translation: Naval Museum) is a maritime museum located on Stumholmen island, in Karlskrona. It is Sweden's national naval museum, dedicated to the Swedis ...
in Karlskrona.
He married Elisabeth Öhman and had six children. Two daughters and two sons survived to adulthood. His younger surviving son, Johan Nikolaus Lidströmer, who inherited the
Allatorp property outside
Karlskrona
Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...
in
Blekinge
Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...
, had children, but no grandchildren. Jonas Lidströmer's oldest surviving son,
Fredrik August Lidströmer (1787–1856) was Stockholm's
City Architect and passed the name further to his oldest son Otto August Lidströmer, businessman in Stockholm. The younger son, Fredrik Lidströmer, who was an officer in the former Swedish colony of
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy, officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barts (English) or St. Barth (French), is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. The island lies about southeast of the island ...
in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
did, however, not have any children. Otto August Lidströmer alone passed the name further to his only son Gustaf Lidströmer, a lawyer whose sister
Sigrid Lidströmer
Sigrid Lidströmer (1866–1942), granddaughter of the architect Fredrik August Lidströmer, was a Swedish author, polemicist and translator. She wrote articles in the Swedish literary magazine ''Idun (magazine), Idun,'' wrote and translated songs ...
did not have any children, who in turn passed it to his only child Jonas (II) Lidströmer, a lawyer.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lidstromer, Jonas
1755 births
1808 deaths
18th-century Swedish nobility
18th-century Swedish inventors
Swedish Navy officers
Uppsala University alumni
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Knights of the Order of Vasa
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences