Sam Eyde

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Sam Eyde photographed in 1910.
Sam Eyde photographed in 1910.

Samuel Eyde (29 October 1866, Arendal – 21 June 1940) was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist, the founder of Norsk Hydro and Elkem.

Sam Eyde was the son of a shipowner, and studied engineering in Berlin where he graduated in 1891. He started his career in Hamburg, working with the railways where he planned new lines, bridges and stations. In 1897 he started his own business, Gleim & Eyde with his previous boss from Hamburg. He soon established offices in Kristiania (Oslo today) and Stockholm, and by the turn of the century his firm was one of the largest in Scandinavia, with some 30 engineers.[1]

Eyde and Kristian Birkeland met at a dinner party in 1903; Birkeland was working on developing an electric arc, while Eyde had recently bought the rights to several waterfalls in Telemark. They agreed to cooperate to develop an electric flame. This allowed Eyde to establish Det Norske Aktieselskab for Eletrokemisk Industri (today Elkem) along with the Wallenberg family who he had met in Sweden; the factory at Notodden opening on May 2, 1905. The same year he founded Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (now Norsk Hydro). Eyde remained director of both companies.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Payton, Gary and Lepperød, Trond (1995). Rjukanbanen; på sporet av et industrieventyr (in Norwegian). Rjukan: Mana Forlag, 20–24.