Abstracts 2010

German teachers as educators of Finnish engineers

Panu Nykänen

The rapid development of technology and industry in Finland in the 19th century was based on a purposive technology transfer and furthering of education and research of science and technology. The most important constraint for the development of education in the whole Northern Europe was the shortage of competent teachers. Thus the experts of technology, coming to Finland from abroad, and especially from Germany since the 1860s, were important agents of change in the 19th-century Finland. When the institutionalized education of technology was started in Helsinki in 1849, the system was adopted from the German language area (gewerbschule, realschule). Until the First World War, German was practically the third official language of the Polytechnic Institute (since 1908 University of Technology).

Carl Robert Mannerheim as technology entrepreneur

Petri Paju

The article examines the industrial and technological undertakings of Count Carl Robert Mannerheim. He was born to a Finnish noble family in 1835 and died in 1914. Currently, he is known as the father of General Gustaf Mannerheim, a former President of Finland and a war hero. In addition to farming, the Count gained experience in owning a machine shop, producing alcohol and erecting and managing a pulp and paper mill. After personal bankruptcy, he lived in Paris, France, during 1879–1887 and was involved in establishing a panorama show building in New York. Back in Helsinki in 1887, he started importing and selling office supplies and machines. He continued this business for almost thirty years, until his death, and it grew into a renowned company called Systema.

Adolf Törngren, developer of traffic communications of Tampere

Mikko Kylliäinen

Tampere was the most industrialized town in the 19th-century Finland. Its location was beneficial for the industry because of the available water power. However, the traffic connections from inland to the coast were not the best possible. Factories used mainly horses for transport, but this method was not the most reliable to deliver goods to the clients. In Finland, a significant part of the product prices consisted of haulage. That is why factory directors in Tampere had a great interest in developing traffic communications. The leading figure in this was Adolf Törngren (1824&ndash 1895), the founder of Tampere linen factory. He participated in the discussion about traffic connections of Tampere both as a member of Parliament of the Grand Duchy of Finland and in many other ways. He also developed traffic communications at his own expense: he financed and operated the first steamship line from Tampere to the south. The article discusses the motivation, the goals and the achievements of Adolf Törngren as adeveloper of traffic communications of Tampere.

"A certain young Finn": The experiences of an emerging Finnish scientist in the early 20th-century Germany

Riitta Mattila

Yrjö Kauko (1886–1974) was born in a modest peasant family in Eastern Finland. However, his ambitious parents wanted to give a proper education to their only son. Kauko graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1909 and continued immediately his studies at the University of Karlsruhe. After having successfully completed his doctoral thesis, he worked as professor Fritz Haber’s personal assistant, first in Karslruhe and then in Berlin at Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. In the University of Berlin he also attended lectures of the most prominent scientists of the time, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. Yrjö Kauko was very impressed by the strong personality of Fritz Haber. After Haber’s death in 1934, he wrote a highly admiring necrology of his teacher, who had influenced his attitudes to science and teaching.

Arabia's CEO Carl-Gustaf Herlitz (1882–1961) as importer of technologies

Simo Järvelä & Kai Luotonen

Carl-Gustaf Herlitz worked as the CEO of Arabia Corporation between years 1917–1947. In order to develop Arabia’s production process he imported several types of technology in Finland. The first of the new solutions was a mill system which was used to produce mass for porcelain products. The second was a tunnel furnace which made firing more economical. The third was the Bedaux System which made possible the rationalization of handwork in porcelain production. All those technologies together contributed to Arabia’s breakthrough into the international markets.

The Finlandssvenska tekniker book series: A contribution to the Finnish biographical history of technology

Johan Stén

In 1923, 1924 and 1925, three books containing original biographical articles in Swedish were published, portraying some 32 distinguished Swedish-speaking engineers and inventors in Finland. The Finlandssvenska tekniker book series, initiated and edited by Finnish poet and engineer Jonatan Reuter, provides a unique view of the state of technology, technical education and economy in the early days of industrialisation in Finland. In 2003, 2005, and 2007, the series was continued by three volumes, providing 35 new biographies of Swedishspeaking Finns having made significant contributions to technology. The persons described in the books range from industrial leaders, civil engineers and architects to professors and entrepreneurs. Many of the biographies suggest that the Swedish-speaking Finns have been particularly prone to travel abroad and to apply the new ideas and knowledge they have acquired. Furthermore, their success was often due to the vast Russian market, which lied open for the Finns before the Russian revolution.

The Finnish Society for the History of Technology and its journal Tekniikan Waiheita: Milestones, 1980–2010

Petri Paju

The Finnish Society for the History of Technology has its roots going back more than eighty years. This is mainly because it continues the work of an earlier organisation devoted to preserving the history of technology. In 1926–28, the Finnish Society for the Museum of Technology (Suomen Teknillinen Museoyhdistys) was founded jointly by several government ministries and engineering associations. After several stages, its goal of establishing a permanent Museum of Technology was achieved: in the early 1970s the museum gradually opened its exhibitions to visitors in Helsinki.

After the success, the society began to search for new directions and purpose. As part of this era of change, the society began journal publication. The new periodical Tekniikan Waiheita, the Finnish Quarterly for the History of Technology, was founded in 1983 by members of the society who were devoted to the study of the history of technology. In 1994, a new phase began: Tekniikan Waiheita started to resemble the present-day journal in form, and its main articles usually had proper scholarly references. In 1995, the society changed its name to the 'Finnish Society for the History of Technology' (Tekniikan Historian Seura – Teknikhistoriska Samfundet, in Finnish and in Swedish). During recent years the society has had some 320 members and the circulation of its journal has been around 1100 copies which, given the small population of Finland (approximately 5.2 million), makes its distribution and availability quite high in international terms, compared with other history-oftechnology journals.

Technology, Everyday Working Life and Employer Policy: Verla Groundwood and Board Mill Community from the 1880s till the 1960s

Inkeri Ahvenisto

Verla Groundwood and Board Mill in the south-east of Finland has been added to the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List in 1996. But why has it been preserved to the present day? One of the answers lies in the technological development. Yet, the technology used in the production affects not only the company’s terms of survival – it also affects everyday life and work at the mill. Hence, the second question is: How exactly did the Verla Mill affect the sense of community (both positive and negative)?

A dualistic way of looking at a mill community either as a battlefield of industrial relations or as a near-ideal community, much like 'one big family', is too simple to reflect the variety of the past. This article examines how a simultaneous sense of community and separateness existed and was created both at the level of individual everyday life and in the company's strategy.

Tolerance of Noise as a Necessity of Urban Life: Noise pollution as an environmental problem and its cultural perceptions in the city of Helsinki

Outi Ampuja

This article contains an English summary of a PhD-study called Melun sieto kaupunkielämän välttämättömyytenä. Melu ympäristöongelmana ja sen synnyttämien reaktioiden kulttuurinen käsittely Helsingissä. The study looks at the noise pollution problem and the change in the urban soundscape in the city of Helsinki during the period from the 1950s to the present day. The study investigates the formation of noise problems, the politicization of the noise pollution problem, noise-related civic activism, the development of environmental policies on noise, and the expectations that urban dwellers have had concerning their everyday soundscape.

Both so-called street noise and the noise caused by, e.g., neighbours are taken into account. The study investigates whether our society contains or has for some time contained cultural and other elements that place noise pollution as an essential or normal state of affairs as part of urban life. It is also discussed whether we are moving towards an artificial soundscape, meaning that the auditory reality, the soundscape, is more and more under human control.

University researchers developing technology to commercial markets: A brief review to the 20th century Finland

Sampsa Kaataja

The article, based on Kaataja's doctoral dissertation Technology alongside science. Finnish academic scientists as developers of commercial technology during the 20th century, analyses the role of university researchers as developers of technology aimed at commercial markets, and the use of different industries in Finland during the last 100 years. It is asked e.g. how much commercial technology has been developed inside the academic world, to which technological fields researchers have contributed and what was the level of technology transfer from universities to commercial markets? The study focuses on the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology, which were leading institutions of teaching and research in the 20th-century Finland. The study concentrates on 2150 scientists working in the two universities in 1900–75. They obtained 1021 Finnish patents during the years 1891–2004, and those inventions form the main source material of the work and basis for statistical analysis. In addition to this, a detailed examination of seven individual UH and HUT scientists is included in the study.

Fire and Fuels: CO2 and SO2 Emissions in the Finnish Economy, 1800–2005

Jan Kunnas

This article provides a summary of my Doctoral thesis, the subject of which was Finland's transition from a wood based energy system to a fossil fuel based one, and the environmental consequences of this transition. The period under examination was from the beginning of the 19th century to the present, covering Finland’s transition from a proto-industrial agricultural society to a “post-industrial” society. Along the way, I show how historical methods can be used to test economic theory, adding two new explanations for the existence of an Environmental Kuznets curve; and the usefulness of quantitative methods in historical research, showing that burning cultivation of peatlands was by far the greatest source of carbon dioxide in Finland in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Finally, I argue that proper environmental standards and conservation comprise a necessary condition for economic growth in the long run.

Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland': Computer construction as a national project in the 1950s

Petri Paju

The article is based on Paju's Doctoral dissertation Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland'. It examines the history of information technology and nationalism in the 1950s Finland. The study focuses on the Committee for Mathematical Machines (1954–1960), which was designated to acquire the country's first computer, and its associates and asks how the Committee was justified, especially from the perspective of the national good, and what kind of motives the actions of the Committee manifested. The motives studied are the Committee's goals in the field of computing, in developing science and technology in society, and in imagining Finland anew. The materials for the study consist of a multifaceted collection of sources from Finland, Sweden and Germany.

The Committee chose to duplicate a G1a computer from Göttingen, Western Germany. In Finland the computer was named ESKO. However, the copying was delayed several times and eventually produced an old-fashioned computer. In addition to building the ESKO, the Committee early on intended to create a national computing centre in Helsinki. This master plan can be regarded as a scientific and technological policy prior to state involvement in such matters in Finland. The projects of the Committee greatly benefitted the field, particularly the companies of IBM Finland and the Finnish Cable Works, which started a computing centre similar to that planned by the Committee. This business unit later evolved into a part of the Nokia Corporation. The term ‘Ilmarinen’s Finland’ is used to argue that technology did not just become a ‘national project’ in the post-war Finland, but was explicitly made so.