Helge Palmcrantz

Helge Palmcrantz
Born Helge Palmcrantz
1842
Hammerdal, Sweden
Died 1880 (aged 37–38)
Nationality  Sweden
Occupation Firearms designer

Helge Palmcrantz (1842–1880), Swedish inventor and industrialist, was born in Hammerdal, in the province of Jämtland, the son of a captain in the Jämtlands fältjägarregemente. He was enlisted as a cadet in his father's regiment, where he worked on land survey. After a couple of years he left the regiment to study at the Technological Institute of Stockholm (later known as KTH).

In partnership with his brother-in-law, Theodor Winborg, Palmcrantz founded a small but growing factory on Kungsholmen, Stockholm, where they manufactured reaping machines, mowers and other agricultural equipment of their own design.[1]

In 1873 Palmcrantz patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun that would later be known as the Nordenfelt machine-gun after his financial backer, Thorsten Nordenfelt. Palmcrantz met Nordenfelt 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. It was Nordenfelt who convinced Palmcrantz to increase the caliber of his gun to one inch, making it a suitable weapon for use against the growing threat of torpedo boats.[2]

After Palmcrantz succumbed to an early death from a bleeding ulcer, Winborg and Nordenfelt continued to develop and manufacture his guns in Sweden, England and Spain.

Helge Palmcrantz has a school named after him; Palmcrantzskolan in Östersund.

References

  1. ↑ "patent 2309". The Commissioners of patents' journal. Great Britain. Patent Office. 1876. p. 2153.
  2. ↑ Smith, Anthony (2004). Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War. Macmillan. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-312-93477-4.
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