Knud Ørn Bryn (15 March 1855 – 28 May 1941) was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist. He was one of the pioneers in the development of modern hydropower plants in Norway.

Biography

Bryn was born in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

, Norway. He was the son of Thomas Bryn (1813-1902) and Kristine Emilie Caroline Richter (1825-1869). He was the brother of anthropologist Halfdan Bryn and engineer Alfred Bryn. Bryn graduated from the Trondheim Technical School (''Trondhjems Tekniske Læreanstalt'') in 1874 and completed engineering exam at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 1877. He worked first as an engineer at various railway. In 1883, he established the Trondheim Electric Bureau. In 1884, Bryn moved Christiania (now Oslo). In 1886. he was appointed first director of Christiania Telephone Society. In 1898, he established

Hafslund ASA Hafslund AS is a group with ownership within the power industry. The group is fully owned by Oslo municipality. Hafslund's core business streams are hydropower, with 56 percent ownership in Norway's second largest hydropower company Hafslund Eco A ...

the company which operated the power grid supplying electricity to Oslo. He served as manager of Hafslund until 1928. Bryn was chairman from 1929 to 1936 of AS Tyssefaldene, a power company supplying power to energy-intensive industrial companies in

Odda Odda () is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1913 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Ullensvang Municipality in Vestland county. It was located in southeastern Hordaland c ...

, the main commercial and economic centre of the region of

Hardanger Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is l ...

. Bryn was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

and of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promo ...

. He was decorated Commander with Star of the Order of St. Olav in 1928.

References

1855 births 1941 deaths Businesspeople from Trondheim Engineers from Trondheim Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni 19th-century Norwegian engineers Norwegian business executives Norwegian company founders Norwegian industrialists Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal {{Norway-business-bio-stub