Helge Palmcrantz, Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

Helge Palmcrantz

Swedish firearms designer

Date of Birth: 07-Jul-1842

Date of Death: 22-Nov-1880

Profession: engineer, entrepreneur, inventor

Nationality: Sweden

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Helge Palmcrantz

  • Helge Palmcrantz (1842–1880), Swedish inventor and industrialist, was born in Hammerdal, in the province of Jämtland, the son of a captain in the Jämtland Ranger Regiment.
  • 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 workshop on Vollmar Yxkullsgatan 25, Södermalm, Stockholm.
  • As number of employees increased along with the production volume, he moved to a new factory on Kungsholmen, Stockholm, where they manufactured firearms, reaping machines, mowers and other agricultural equipment of their own design.
  • Later on there would be Palmcrantz & Co factory on Lövholmen, Stockholm as well; later called Palmcrantzska Fabriken. In 1868, the first version of his machine-gun was finished and a demonstration of its capacity was held on LadugĂĄrdsgärdet, Stockholm in front of the Swedish Defense Minister; G.R.
  • Abel.
  • After a couple of modifications and improvements, he patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun and it was bought into the Swedish army as Kulspruta m/1873.
  • Same year, the machine-gun was shown on the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.
  • To reach international success, 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 and his second model kulspruta m/1875 would later be known as the Nordenfelt machine-gun after his financial backer, Thorsten Nordenfelt.
  • 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.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 former school named after him; Palmcrantzskolan in Ă–stersund.
  • The block names "Kulsprutan" and "Lavetten" on Kungsholmen is named after his factories at Hantverkargatan.

Read more at Wikipedia

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