FROM DYNAMITE TOSKYPE– a small guide to research Sweden

Vänd för en svensk version.

”Oh, Abba!”

What is Sweden actually most known for abroad? What do people say whenwe're on holiday and tell people we're from Sweden? Is it a cheerful ”Oh,Abba!”? An extensive discussion of IKEA or Volvo? Or perhaps a dissertation onthe beautiful women?

Even in a post-Abba world, our musical exports have spread the Sweden brandbeyond national boundaries. ”The Swedish fashion miracle” with H&M at thevanguard has achieved the same effect in recent years. Renowned director andproducer Ingmar Bergman is at least as big a star in Hollywood as on Fårö, BjörnBorg's characteristic headband is recognized in both London and Tokyo, and successes for the Swedish culinary team have elevated Swedish cuisine to international heights. Music, cars, furniture, fashion, sports, movies, gastronomy– not a bad list of credentials for a small country like Sweden.

But that's not where it ends. What many people don't realize is that there is acompletely different type of Swedish export that affected large portions of theworld far more than Abba. In some cases this type of export has played a crucialrole in how we live our lives today. The fact is that Sweden has produced moreworld-famous inventors in proportion to its population than any other country.

One day a German traveller who had listened to the voices on our trains stoppedme. He was struck by the fact that not a single one of them was a scientist or researcher and asked with amazement why this was the case. We didn't have agood answer, so we asked the same question. We decided then and there to takethe opportunity to present some of the Swedish inventors whose innovations havemade a difference all over the world. We can now proudly add four of them asnew voices on our trains.

Enjoy!

Per ThorstensonCEO Arlanda Express

Christopher Polhem

”In 1697 Polhem started Sweden's first school of engineering, where he developed Polhem's

mechanical alphabet. In 1699 he founded the factory Stjärnsunds Manufakturverk in

Dalarna. Polhem is responsible for both the ”Polhem knot” and the ”Polhem padlock”; he

was one of the first people to be elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and in

1716 he was raised to the nobility. Every other year since 1878, the Swedish Association of

Graduate Engineers has awarded the prestigious Polhem Prize.

Anders Celsius

Celsius Thermometer, 18th centuryDuring the eighteenth century the Celsius thermometer became a world-class instrument to

measure temperature. The measurement scale was based on the freezing and boiling point of

water (0-100 degrees) and Celsius was the first to succeed in precisely identifying these fixed points.

Alfred Nobel

Dynamite, 1865In the middle of the nineteenth century, chemist Alfred Nobel combined nitroglycerine with an

absorbent clay, thereby laying the foundation for a global empire – he had invented dynamite.

Nobel's will clearly stated that part of his wealth should be used for prizes in science, literature,

and peace. The Nobel Prize is now awarded every year on the date of Nobel's death, December 10.

”The father of Swedish mechanics”, 17th century

Swedish Inventors Through the Ages

Ulrika Eleonora Lindström

Västerbotten cheese, 1872When dairymaid Ulrika Eleonora was forced to leave her workplace where she made cheese,

the curds cooled and were heated several times. The result of this ”mistake” was a cheese

with a completely different taste than was intended. The cheese quickly became a huge

national success and Ulrika Eleonora was soon forgiven for her carelessness.

Carl Boberg

O Store Gud, 1885One hot summer day – right after a heavy thunderstorm – Carl Boberg, just 26 years old,

wrote the psalm O Store Gud (O Great God). It was the source of the English language hymn

How Great Thou Art and in the early 1950s the hymn was discovered by the US revival prea-

cher Billy Graham. Today How Great Thou Art is one of the world's most widely spread songs.

Johan Petter Johansson

Adjustable wrench(spanner), 1891One year after Johan Petter Johansson found the

ideal design for the adjustable wrench (spanner)

he succeeded in patenting his practical tool. The

Swedish origin of the wrench is recognized in several

countries, including in the United States.

Sven Wingqvist

Ball bearing, 1907In 1907 Swedish engineer Sven Wingqvist took out a patent on a special ball bearing, which

was more durable and reliable thanks to its spherical shape and design. The ball bearing became

the origin of SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken), one of the largest companies in Sweden today.

Alexander Samuelson

The Coca-Cola bottle, 1916Alexander Samuelson was a glass engineer who in 1915, inspired by the shape of the cocoa

bean, designed famous glass Coca-Cola bottle. The bottle was introduced in 1916 and Coca-

Cola soon became the world's most well-known brand.

Victor Hasselblad

System camera, 1948In 1947 Victor Hasselblad presented the first model of the Hasselblad camera, a system camera

that later became one of the most respected cameras in the world. NASA chose it as the

official camera in space, after it was the first camera used on the moon.

Rune Elmqvist

Pacemaker, 1958In 1958, six years after the first stationary pacemaker was designed, engineer and inventor

Rune Elmqvist developed the first implantable pacemaker. It was unique because it was

small enough to be surgically implanted in the body. A doctor from Karolinska Institutet

commissioned the invention.

Nils Alwall

Artificial kidney, 1967In 1946 Swedish doctor and inventor Nils Alwall developed an artificial kidney for dialysis.

The invention was tested on a patient and it became the first cornerstone for the global

medical device company Gambro. In 1967 Gambro launched its first artificial kidney and

then began to produce them on a large-scale.

Niklas Zennström

Skype, 2003In 2003 IT entrepreneur Niklas Zennström founded telephony company Skype (free calls, video

calls, and instant messaging over the Internet) together with Janus Friis from Denmark. In

September 2005 Skype was purchased by US company eBay for more than SEK 19 billion.

The deal made Niklas Zennström one of the wealthiest men in Sweden.

Ruben Rausing

Tetra Pak, 1950Tetra Pak was founded in Lund in 1950

by Dr. Ruben Rausing. The name comes

from a tetrahedral package shaped milk

carton invented by Erik Wallenberg. The

company conquered the international

market and its products still dominate

the industry today.

Our voices

Håkan Lans

Håkan Lans, born in 1947, is an internationally recog-

nized inventor and researcher. Early in his career, Lans

was acclaimed for developing a system for a computer

color graphics display and a few years later for a means

of communication that increases security for navigation

by planes and ships. This method is now the global

standard for both maritime shipping and aviation. Lans

is also behind the development of a digitizing tablet that

is a precursor to today's computer mouse. In 1995 Lans

was awarded the Polhem Prize for his color graphics

display and his positioning system transponder. Other

prizes include a gold medal from the Royal Swedish

Academy of Engineering Sciences (1993) and a prize

from the Royal Institute of Technology (1996). He was

elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering

Sciences (IVA) and holds an honorary doctor's degree

from Uppsala University. Håkan Lans is currently still in-

volved in litigation against several American computer

companies over his color graphics system for computer

displays, and has an unresolved dispute with Saab over

his satellite navigation patent.

Laila Ohlgren

Engineer Laila Ohlgren was born in 1937 in Stockholm and began her career with the Swedish

Telecommunications Administration in 1956. In the 1970s she worked on the development

of Nordic mobile telephony (Nordisk Mobiltelefoni, NMT). In May 2009 she was the first

woman ever to be awarded the prestigious Polhem Prize, for the concept of increasing

security in the phone call connection by entering and storing digits in the mobile phone

and then releasing the entire number to the network by pushing the green ”ring” button.

This concept is now the global standard in mobile phones and has also spread to other

telephones with a memory function, such as portable telephones in the home.

Mats Leijon

After completing the five-year engineering curriculum in just three years, Mats Leijon was

awarded the John Ericsson medal in 1984 for his outstanding accomplishment. He then

earned his PhD in high-voltage engineering and began working at ABB, where he became

the brain behind several significant innovations. In 2000 he became a professor in electricity

at Uppsala University. His work there resulted in several new solutions for extracting energy

from renewable sources. Leijon has also started several companies in this field, including

Seabased, Vertical Wind, Current Power and Electric Line AB.

Bengt Samuelsson

Bengt Samuelsson is one of Sweden's leading researchers in medical biochemistry. His dis-

coveries have led to several new medications. Samuelsson's research has won international

recognition and in 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. His list

of credentials is long and includes titles such as professor and dean at Karolinska Institutet,

chairman of the Nobel Foundation, an honorary doctor's degree at Uppsala University in

honor of Linnaeus, and an honorary doctor's degree at universities in Chicago, Rio de

Janeiro, China, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Milan, and New Orleans. He is a member of the Royal

Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American and French Academies of Science and the

Royal Society in London.