Nils Ericson

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Nils Ericson (31 January 1802 – 8 September 1870) was a Swedish inventor and mechanical engineer, like his brother, John Ericsson. Nils Ericson, born in Långbanshyttan, Värmland, Sweden, was raised to the untitled nobility by king Oscar I of Sweden in 1854, which made him revert to a spelling of his surname with only one "s". In 1859 he was made friherre (baron).

John's and Nils' father Olof Ericsson, who worked as the supervisor for a mine in Värmland, had lost money in speculations and had to move his family from Wermelandia to Forsvik in 1810. There he worked as a director of blastings during the excavation of the Swedish Göta Canal. The extraordinary skills of the two brothers were discovered by Baltzar von Platen, the architect of the Göta Canal. The two brothers were dubbed cadets of mechanics of the Royal Navy and engaged as trainees at the canal enterprise.

In 1823 he joined the Engineering corps of the Swedish Army as a second lieutenant, but in 1830 he transferred to the Mechanics corps of the Royal Navy where he, in 1850, had advanced to the rank of colonel. Between 1830 and 1850 Nils Ericson planned and directed the construction of the canals at Stallbacka, Säffle, Karlstad and Albrektsund. He also led the construction of the Saima canal in Finland and the reconstruction of the canal at Trollhättan and the floodgate at Stockholm. After 1850 he was primarily occupied with the design and construction of the Swedish state owned railway system. At the same time he led planing of the canal in Dalsland while construction there was being led by his son Werner Ericson.

There is a statue of him outside the central railway station in Stockholm and the Nils Ericson Terminal at the central railway station in Gothenburg is named after him.